To Serve the Present Age
A Critique of 19th Century New Measures and 21st Century Fresh Expressions
by
Suzanne Stewart Gainey Michael
Date: ______Approved:
______Dean Laceye C. Warner, Supervisor
______Dr. Elaine A. Heath, Advisor
______Dr. Sujin Pak Boyer, Doctor of Ministry Director
Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Ministry in the Divinity School of Duke University
2014
i
v
ABSTRACT
To Serve the Present Age
A Critique of 19th Century New Measures and 21st Century Fresh Expressions
by
Suzanne Stewart Gainey Michael
Date: ______Approved:
______Dean Laceye C. Warner, Supervisor
______Dr. Elaine A. Heath, Advisor
______Dr. Sujin Pak Boyer, Doctor of Ministry Director
An abstract of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Ministry in the Divinity School of Duke University
2014
Copyright by Suzanne Stewart Gainey Michael 2014
Abstract
1.1 The Question/Problem:
The United Methodist Church in America is shrinking. In response to this truth, I researched historical practical divinity practices in America that grew and sustained the church in the past. Many of these practices are still applicable to serve our present age.
How do we make converts in the most effective way to usher in the reign of God and represent an incarnational Christ to the world so that the world becomes Christian through social holiness practices and holy beliefs? Some theologians think practice makes perfect while others insist upon holy assurance for salvation. What practical practices work most excellently to serve our present age?
1.2 Methodology:
In this dissertation, I identify, examine, compare, and contrast applicable and historically consistent and effective practices employed by these church movements in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries to gain new converts and produce church growth. The introduction explains my calling to address how to best serve our present age and expresses my interest in John Wesley, Charles Finney, Phoebe Palmer, and
Elaine Heath.
In chapters 1 and 2, I begin with Charles Grandison Finney’s New Measures as well as Phoebe Palmer’s participation in the Holiness movement in the nineteenth
iv
century including theological opposition. Performing historical analysis on Finney’s and
Palmer’s relative primary sources reveals their theology of call, scriptural emphasis, and social holiness practices. I identify the “New Measures” as promoted by Finney and
Palmer as established by Wesley using primary and secondary sources.
In chapters 3 and 4, I examine modern day fresh expressions as well as Elaine
Heath’s missional communities, a movement designed to promote a way of life for new converts and church growth. I include Heath’s primary sources and her analysis of
Phoebe Palmer’s theology. In addition, I interviewed Heath on her work and how it connects Finney, Palmer, fresh expressions, and missional communities to participate in
God’s reign for our day and time. I attended a Bible Study where she expounded on scripture that illustrates Jesus’ missional ministry. I discussed the opposition to fresh expressions as a means of understanding orthodox theology and accepting innovation as
Holy Spirit empowerment.
In chapter 5, my analysis compares and contrasts the new measures of the nineteenth century with the twenty-first century fresh expressions movement. I identify similarities and differences and address their innovation as a means to reveal successful evangelical church growth practices for present church leaders and communities that are sustaining over time for the purpose of making disciples to transform the world.
Finally, I present the conclusion and analysis of my findings that successfully usher in the reign of God for practical divinity practices.
v
1.3 Conclusion:
At the age of ten, it was during a revival that the tongue of fire touched me and called me to accept Jesus as the only way to salvation, set me on the path of faithful discipleship, and planted within me a fire in my belly to transform the world and usher in the Kingdom of God. During my first appointment as a minister in a small rural church, my conference recognized my gifts for church growth. At their request, the
Board of Global Ministries trained me to plant churches. My training and experience as a church planter, church revitalization training, and tenure on District and Conference
Boards of Congregational Development have allowed me to participate in church revitalization, church plants, and experience the power of the Holy Spirit blowing at the will of God and growing the Church of Jesus Christ. All of the churches that I have served have consistently produced new converts and grown in discipleship. It is my experience that the historically effective church practices of the nineteenth century revealed by this research produce a healthy Body of Christ on earth that authentically replicates the ministry of Jesus and ushers in the reign of God in America and throughout the world.
In nineteenth century America, Finney’s New Measures and Palmer’s altar sanctification relied on Wesley’s revival methods calling the American Church to radical change and theological overhaul, so that believers could become a people of method and service based in God’s word. In the present age, fresh expressions and Elaine Heath call
vi
the church to a radical overhaul – a return to the model of Christianity as set forth by
Christ and the apostles. This incarnational model is the bridge to the past that is Holy
Spirit empowered, scripturally rooted, and affirms the call of laity and clergy, for the purpose of participating in social holiness that ushers in the reign of God in this present age. When we, the United Methodist Church, faithfully return to these practices, the
Church of Jesus Christ will again grow and thrive so that it can follow Jesus, make disciples, and transform the world.
vii
Dedication
This dissertation is dedicated to Jennifer, a dear friend in Christ, for twenty-six years of teaching and editing and to Jimmy, my spouse of thirty-six years, for encouraging and supporting me to answer God's call into the ordained ministry.
viii
Table of Contents
Abstract ...... iv
1.1 The Question/Problem: ...... iv
1.2 Methodology: ...... iv
1.3 Conclusion: ...... vi
Dedication ...... viii
Acknowledgement ...... xiii
Introduction: To Serve the Present Age ...... 15
Part I ...... 18
1. Identify 19th Century Church Growth Practices of New Measures and the Holiness Movement ...... 18
1.1 Who is Charles Finney? ...... 19
1.1.1 Biographical Information and Personality: ...... 19
1.1.2 Finney’s Convictions and Beliefs: ...... 21
1.2 What were Finney’s “New Measures”? ...... 22
1.2.1 What is a Revival and How to Prepare for Revivals? (Lectures I X) ...... 23
1.2.2 A Wise Minister Will Be Successful (Lecture XI) ...... 24
1.2.3 How to Preach the Gospel (Lecture XII) ...... 25
1.2.4 Measures to Promote Revivals (Lecture XIV) ...... 26
1.2.5 Direction to Sinners (Lecture XVIII) ...... 27
1.2.6 Instructions to Converts (Lecture XIX) ...... 29
1.2.7 Growth in Grace (Lecture XXII) ...... 30
ix
1.3 Who Opposed Finney’s Revivals? ...... 31
1.4 Conclusion ...... 37
2. Who was Phoebe Palmer? ...... 40
2.1 Biographical Information and Personality ...... 41
2.2 Palmer's Convictions and Beliefs ...... 43
2.3 What were Palmer's Holiness Practices? ...... 48
2.3.1 The Tuesday Meetings to Promote Holiness ...... 49
2.3.2 The Shorter Way to Holiness ...... 50
2.3.3 Revivals and Preaching with Unction ...... 53
2.4 Who Opposed Palmer's Theology and Practices? ...... 55
2.5 Conclusion ...... 56
Part II ...... 58
3. Identify 21st Century Church Growth Practices of Fresh Expressions and Missional Communities ...... 58
3.1 What are fresh expressions? ...... 58
3.1.1 The Fresh Expressions Movement ...... 60
3.1.2 The Term 'fresh expressions' ...... 60
3.1.3 The Fresh Expressions Team ...... 61
3.1.4 Mission-Shaped Church Report to the Archbishop's Council ...... 61
3.1.5 The 2012 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party ...... 62
3.2 Fresh Expressions Objectives and Principal Features ...... 65
3.2.1 Missional Objectives ...... 66
x
3.2.2 Contextual Objectives ...... 70
3.2.3 Formational and Discipling Objectives ...... 71
3.2.4 Ecclesial Objectives...... 72
3.3 Who is Opposed to Fresh Expressions? ...... 74
3.4 Conclusion ...... 75
4. Who is Elaine Heath?...... 77
4.1 Biographical Information and Personality ...... 78
4.1.1 Heath's Call and Beliefs ...... 81
4.1.2 Mysticism, Holiness, and Methodism ...... 82
4.1.2.1 Mysticism ...... 83
4.1.2.2 Holiness ...... 84
4.1.2.3 Methodism ...... 85
4.2 How does Heath's Theology Connect Historically? ...... 86
4.3 Missional or Intentional Communities New Monastic Communities ...... 90
4.3.1 Missional Wisdom Foundation and Intentional Communities ...... 92
4.3.2 New Day Communities ...... 93
4.3.3 Anchor Churches ...... 95
4.3.4 Rule of Life ...... 97
4.4 Who is the Opposition to Intentional Communities? ...... 99
4.5 Conclusion ...... 101
Part III ...... 105
5. Implications of New Measures and Fresh Expressions ...... 105
xi
5.1 Similarities and Differences ...... 105
5.1.1 What are the similarities between New Measures and Fresh Expressions? ... 106
5.1.2 What are the differences between New Measures and Fresh Expressions? ... 107
5.1.3 Analysis of Similarities and Differences ...... 108
5.2 Historical Bridge Leading to Practical Wisdom to Serve the Present Age ...... 110
5.2.1 Holy Spirit Empowerment ...... 111
5.2.2 Scripturally Rooted ...... 112
5.2.3 Call ...... 113
5.2.4 Social Holiness ...... 113
5.3 Practical Divinity – What Can the Present Church Learn? ...... 114
Bibliography ...... 117
Biography ...... 120
xii
Acknowledgement
I’ve heard it said that it takes a village to raise a child. It has taken a community of faith for me to complete this dissertation. For this community, I give thanks.
It was at Duke University in the late 1990’s that I was inspired to write this dissertation by the idea that a spiritual torch passes from generation to generation in this country. Dr. Grant Wacker’s Church History and Evangelism Classes introduced me to
Charles Finney and Phoebe Palmer as prophets who carried God’s spiritual torch in their time and place. I can still hear Dr. Wacker’s voice resonating in my ear and touching my soul as he lectured in Church History on Phoebe Palmer’s “Tongue of
Fire.” During that time, I began a class thesis on Charles Finney’s New Measures that never seemed to be complete. For Dr. Wacker’s infinite knowledge and gift of teaching based in proven practices from past servants, I give thanks and praise.
The Rev. Dr. Laceye Warner’s Doctoral Theology class taught me to focus on common threads that have proven effective for evangelism throughout time. These common threads are Biblically sound and rooted. In conversations with Dean Warner, she introduced Elaine Heath as a theologian and evangelist teaching Biblically rooted practices that may be used to reignite the fires of evangelism in our present day and aid in ushering in the new millennium in God’s time and place. I am thankful for Dean
Warner’s guidance, patience, and mentoring in the development and writing stages of this dissertation. Her guidance has proven invaluable and is much appreciated.
xiii
During June of 2013, I was blessed to be connected to The Rev. Dr. Elaine Heath through the Western North Carolina Conference’s Annual Meeting where she taught a
Bible Study focusing on how “To Serve the Present Age.” I am deeply indebted to Dr.
Heath for granting me a personal interview to discuss her books exploring Phoebe
Palmer and establishing fresh expressions of evangelization in North America and the world. For her suggestions, time, knowledge, and spiritual inspiration, I give thanks.
In a less formal way, I acknowledge those who have freely given of their time and gifts to “come along side” of me and keep me on track as I worked through the dissertation process. I give thanks and praise to my spouse, my children, my parents, my mother-in-law, my special friends of KJ and Melanie Jones, and Drake and Jennifer
Dowler. Jennifer has donated countless hours praying for me and editing my work from the wee hours of the morning until late in the night. She initially encouraged me to attend college and committed her editing abilities until I had reached my God called destination. She is truly a gift from God. Many folks lifted me up in daily prayer and readily listened and offered advice; for each of these I give thanks. For the communities of faith in which God has placed me to serve in this present age, I give thanks.
xiv
Introduction: To Serve the Present Age
In the summer of 2000, my first United Methodist clergy appointment was to a small rural church located in one of the poorest counties in North Carolina. The church functioned in the patriarchal model where a few families controlled the church, its ministries, and paid the bills. Dairy farmers, nurses, teachers, and a few professionals made up the congregation. It was no surprise to me that, when I went to meet the Pastor
Parish Relations Committee to discuss the vision and ministries of the church, the entire church body, including children, was present and took a vote right in front of me to affirm if they were going to allow the first woman pastor appointed to their church to actually occupy the pulpit.
As we gathered in the small fellowship hall just as the sun was setting for the day, one elderly gentleman queried, “How are you planning to grow this church? What do we need to do to bring in our new neighbors?” Since I had just completed Divinity
School where I had composed a Theology Class Thesis comparing St. Basil the Great On the Holy Spirit to Geoffrey Wainwright’s theology in Doxology on the Holy Spirit, I was quick to retort that the church can only grow by the power of the Holy Spirit and the wind blows where God chooses. That evening, as we began to pray, the wind literally began to blow across the parsonage yard and through the churchyard; for the next three years, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ outgrew its building.
15
After thirteen years of being in the ministry and serving on various local church, district, and conference congregational development boards, I continue to question,
“Why do some churches grow and some do not?” There must be practices that will assure church growth.
I began to wonder, “What worked for the evangelists before me?” Because I am a called evangelist and somewhat of a mystic, several theologians that I studied in
Divinity School intrigued me to pursue research connecting them to the present age.
During the nineteenth century, Charles Finney, an intellectual, and Phoebe
Palmer, a mystic, relied on John Wesley’s theology and methods to represent the incarnational Christ and usher in the reign of God. They both lived in New York and conducted mass revivals. I can’t help but wonder if they ever sat down and compared notes with one another. I searched, but I found no solid proof of this. However, they were definitely connected through a women’s missionary society. Finney’s “New
Measures” revival techniques of intellectualism and emotionalism in conjunction with
Palmer’s practical practices for holiness for the purpose of ushering in social holiness are enough to catch any Christian’s attention. What they promoted and practiced worked for their own present age.
During the twenty-first century, fresh expressions or emerging churches, have begun to arise as a way to catch the attention of the secular world and draw converts to
Christ. Elaine Heath’s intentional communities are fresh expressions that connect with
16
past theological teachings of Wesley, Finney, and Palmer. Heath reminds us to be innovative and try new things for a God who came to earth in human flesh as a fresh new way of ushering in reconciliation and holiness of life.
For the purposes of this research, I will first examine nineteenth century New
Measures practices seeking practical ways to most effectively participate in ushering in the reign of God. Then I will examine twenty-first century fresh expressions practices that are emerging for the present age. I will compare and contrast these identified ideologies and practices seeking common threads. Finally, I will summarize practical practices that are applicable for the Church today to represent an incarnational Christ and most effectively usher in the reign of God as we serve our present age.
17
Part I 1. Identify 19th Century Church Growth Practices of New Measures and the Holiness Movement
And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.1
During the nineteenth century in America the political and religious realms were struggling against and with one another. The century presented social movements, religious movements, and a time for searching for self-identity. The Civil War brought fear, anxiety and change to a country that was still defining itself. There was literal war on the home front and death was seen as an imminent possibility. Some theological voices emerged and were heard by the multitudes. These called prophets, including
Charles Finney and Phoebe Palmer, shaped theology and led the way out of a time of fear and uncertainty. Their leadership was public, controversial, and God inspired. The spiritual darkness of the nineteenth century Civil War and personal identity struggles surrendered to those who practiced practical theology as a way of life as informed by the scriptures and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Through these practices, the darkness was invaded by the light of Christ and his followers.
1 The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version, (London: HarperCollins, 1989), Luke 24:49. 18
1.1 Who is Charles Finney?
During the nineteenth century, Charles Grandison Finney was one of the God called and controversial prophets who helped shape the adolescent United States of
America's religious landscape. This section on Finney includes biographical information and thoughts on his personality, his convictions and beliefs; identifies his "New
Measures,” briefly discusses how to prepare for revivals; addresses the duties of a wise minister, gives directions for how to preach the gospel; outlines measures to promote revivals, gives instructions for dealing with sinners; offers instructions to converts, and exemplifies practices for how to grow in grace. It concludes with discussion on who opposed Finney's revivals and methods. Finney's "New Measures” reshaped the landscape of how converts of Christ were brought into the church; his theology merged church and state and blurred the boundaries in America between God and country.
1.1.1 Biographical Information and Personality:
Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875) was born in Warren, Connecticut just three years before the second Great Awakening began. At the age of two, his family moved to the “burnt-over” district of western New York where he later attended high school. Even though he prepared for college, he never attended college. Instead, he entered the law office of Benjamin Wright of Adams, New York. One year after being admitted to the bar and officially becoming a lawyer, Finney, at the age of 29, had an intense religious experience that led him to give up his promising career as a lawyer in
19
order to become an itinerant evangelist.2 His first pastoral assignment began in 1824 and was funded by the Female Missionary Society of the Western District of New York.3
He was the creator of the 1835 Lectures on Revivals of Religion using what he deemed as "New Measures." For Finney, moral life, spiritual life, and government were entwined into one purpose. “Finney stood for the evangelical outlook that became the prevailing one among middle-class churchgoers in mid-nineteenth century America.”4
According to Finney, a Christian nation should consist of individuals with a devout personal faith in the revealed truth of God. “Finney was sufficiently patriotic to believe that the United States was to be the first nation in which the whole population would be completely converted.”5
Revivals would be the tool Finney employed to convert sinners to Christianity.
Finney’s revolutionary theology and revival measures were formed on the frontier and based in common sense reasoning of the common man. He relied upon John Wesley and
George Whitefield’s techniques for revivals calling people to holy living. Finney struggled to do his part by setting the stage for the coming millennium. He was very optimistic about the success of revivals and stated in his Lectures that “if the church will
2 Garth M. Rosell and Richard A.G. Dupuis, The Memoirs of Charles G. Finney: The Complete Restored Text (Michigan, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1989), XX. 3 Nancy Hardesty, Women Called to Witness: Evangelical Feminism in the Nineteenth Century, Second Edition, (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1984, 1999), 26. 4 William G. McLoughlin, Lectures on Revivals of Religion by Charles Grandison Finney. (Originally published by Finney in 1835). (Massachusetts, Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1960), i. 5 McLoughlin, Lectures, xli. 20
do her duty, the millennium may come in this country in three years.”6 In order for the church to do her duty, itinerant evangelical ministers must do their part by preaching sermons that instill the belief that all people are elected by God for reception of God’s free grace. Finney believed that, as God chose everyone for salvation, salvation initiated everyone into a morality that would usher in the millennium.
1.1.2 Finney’s Convictions and Beliefs:
For Finney, converting all peoples was the path to morality and revivals were the tool leading to global evangelization.7 Only when the world, one person at a time, was evangelized and Christianized could the Millennium come to the present age.
The way to evangelize the world was through making converts and establishing
Christian practices. Finney stood for the practices of temperance, abolitionism, intellectualism, liberalism, faith in the benevolence of God, and evangelism. Living moral lives, for Finney, meant abiding in temperance and abolition. He felt “that slavery was not only a sin which all Christians should oppose but that it was problem with which the churches also must be concerned.”8 When an individual became “saved,” a moral life would follow and bring about a society ready to receive the millennium.
Even though “Finney became the President of Oberlin College, it is sometimes assumed that his evangelical theology brands him as anti-intellectual, anti-scientific, and
6 McLoughlin, Lectures, XV, 306. 7 Rosell, The Memoirs, xix. 8 McLoughlin, Lectures, xliv. 21
anti-liberal.”9 However, through reading the Lectures on Revivals, these misconceptions are easily dispelled. He, like the Jacksonians, felt that if the nation was to continue to grow in peace, liberty, and prosperity under God, that the restrictive clerical and aristocratic traditions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries must give way to new liberal outlooks.10 Finney disliked human-created creeds and institutional denominational systems; instead, he supported the priesthood of all believers. He was a pietist and spent his life at odds with Old School Calvinists of Princeton and
Philadelphia.11 Finney was an innovator who introduced “New Measures” to be used when contemplating and delivering revivals that stirred up emotion and brought converts in by the droves.
1.2 What were Finney’s “New Measures”?
Finney’s New Measures first explained what a revival is and how to go about preparing for a revival. Charles Grandison Finney first published his Lectures on Revivals in 1835 printed by Leavitt, Lord and Company. In 1868, he republished his Lectures with few changes.12 His subsequent lectures offered radical revival techniques that taught the use of relatively little emotionalism as the means of leading persons to conversion. The techniques stressed the human role in moving sinners to conversion. Some revival
9 McLoughlin, Lectures, viii. 10 McLoughlin, Lectures, viii. 11 McLoughlin, Lectures, xxi. 12 Rosell, The Memoirs, xxviii. 22
techniques included: A Wise Minister, How to Preach the Gospel, Measures to Promote
Revivals, Direction for Sinners, Instruction to Converts, and Growth in Grace. Each of
Finney’s “New Measures” was laid out in detail to direct clergy and laity on how to implement the measures. "The New Measures did not function as a bounded unit in the religious sphere, but rather as a quiver of practices that shot back and forth in exchanges between pulpit and bar."13 The New Measures were meant to produce social holiness and Christian morality.
1.2.1 What is a Revival and How to Prepare for Revivals? ect es )
A revival is the work of man in obeying God.14 God induces man to hold revivals when there is a lack of brotherly love and Christian confidence among professors of religion.15 “Almost all of the religion in the world has been produced by revivals.”16 God sends sinners to revivals through the Holy Spirit. God produces excitement in attendees so that they can be convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit and converted to God’s obedience for a moral government. Both new converts and previously converted persons can be revived to repentance and renewed faith.17 Revivals break the power of the world and
13 Ted Smith, The New Measures: A Theological History Of Democratic Practice, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 29. 14 McLoughlin, Lectures, 9. 15 McLoughlin, Lectures, 24. 16 McLoughlin, Lectures, 9. 17 McLoughlin, Lectures, 15. 23
sin over Christians. Through revivals in the churches, sinners will be awakened and reformed; reformation and salvation will follow and the Millennium will come.
1.2.2 A Wise Minister Will Be Successful (Lecture XI)
The right discharge of duties of a minister requires great wisdom.18 By wisdom,
Finney does not mean education. He said, “a minister may be very learned and not wise.”19 Wisdom is attached to gospel knowledge and sermon delivery. Soul winning during revivals marks the amount of wisdom of the minister as stated in Proverbs 11:30
(The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, but violence takes lives away). The minister must understand how to wake up the church and raise the tone of piety to a high standard, thereby clearing the way for conversion. The minister must break the people of all classes down and prepare them for revival. He must awaken them through using the gospel. He must know how to divide it, so as to bring forward the particular truths, in that order, and to make them bear upon those points at such times calculated to produce a given result.20 The object is to generate an excitement in advertising revivals that produces emotions leading to conversion. Finney warns, “the minister should never introduce innovations that are not called for.”21
18 McLoughlin, Lectures, 174. 19 McLoughlin, Lectures, 185. 20 McLoughlin, Lectures, 78. 21 McLoughlin, Lectures, 181. 24
1.2.3 How to Preach the Gospel (Lecture XII)
The winning of souls is contributed by scripture to men, to God, to the truth, and to the sinner himself.22 Finney offers short stories that illustrate his theology and new measures. One of his most famous stories is of a man standing on the banks of the
Niagara River and possibly starting to fall into the waterfall. When strangers passing by call out to him to watch his step, he finds his way and does not slip into the path of the treacherous water. This story illustrates how man is empowered by God to aid in saving other souls and to profess the truth of the Gospel. The sinner, by listening to others, is saved from wrath. Good ministers hunt after sinners and show them just where they stand.23 It is the place of the minister to make sinners feel their guilt. It is not the place of a minister to create controversy within the Christian community because controversy separates Christians from brotherly love. “The gospel should be preached in those proportions that the whole gospel may be brought before the minds of the people, and produce its proper influence.”24 Preaching should be conversational and use the language of common life. Preaching should use illustrations and incidents real to the hearers, drawn from common life and the common business of society, and be repetitious for clarification. Gestures aid the hearers to respond to the passion of the minister.
22 McLoughlin, Lectures, 195. 23 McLoughlin, Lectures, 199. 24 McLoughlin, Lectures, 203. 25
1.2.4 Measures to Promote Revivals (Lecture XIV)
Finney felt that, under the gospel, God had not established any particular system of measures to be used in promoting religion. Acts 16: 20-21 (When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, "These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.") is used by
Finney to justify his beliefs. Paul and Silas were employing unlawful measures to spread the gospel. The laws being broken fell under the Jewish law, not the Christian gospel.
“The fact is that God has established in no church, any particular form, or manner of worship, for promoting the interests of religion. The scriptures are entirely silent on these subjects under the gospel dispensation, and the church is left to exercise her own discretion in relation to all such matters.”25 Those who objected to Finney’s new practices claimed that they were overbearing suggestions and examples of
“fanaticisms.” Those in favor of the new measures asserted that spreading tracts and flyers promoting the upcoming revival and advertising in local newspapers and magazines were not against the scriptures or the law of the land; they were a means of reaching those that the Holy Spirit had stirred toward conviction into God’s kingdom.
Finney suggested that preaching the gospel was the only measure given in the
Bible. The story of Jesus must be spread. Over the centuries new measures have
25 McLoughlin, Lectures, 276. 26
continuously been adopted which have led to established measures of the 19th century.
Introducing new biblically based measures brings about reformations.
Finney introduced the “anxious seat” or “appointed seat in the place of meeting, where the anxious may come and be addressed particularly, and be made subjects of prayer, and sometimes conversed with individually.”26 Finney used the analysis of a petition of temperance as an example to show the confusion and anxiety of the person(s) on the anxious bench. His analysis told of persons who professed that they would abide in temperance; however, when the time came to sign the petition, they were anxious about signing over their rights. The same feelings go through the persons on the anxious bench.
1.2.5 Direction to Sinners (Lecture XVIII)
Finney gave concise instructions for ministers in dealing with new converts who need to know what to do to be saved. The convert must believe that Jesus Christ is the
Messiah and they must repent and ask for forgiveness of their own sins. Sinners should be told to believe the gospel. Finney expressed his concern for intellectualism as a destructive tool in matters of the heart. “Faith is a trust, or confidence, in the scriptures, that leads the individual to act as if they were true.”27 Faith and intellectualism do not always go hand in hand. The repentant person must submit to God. “True submission is
26 McLoughlin, Lectures, 267. The anxious seat was probably adopted from the Methodists who had used a “Mourners bench” in their camp meetings since early in the century. 27 McLoughlin, Lectures, 367. 27
yielding obedience to God.”28 Sinners should act now, confess, forsake their sins, and choose whom they will serve. The Bible says, “Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve.”29 Forsaking their sins means making reparation for sins to man and to God. Life should be led with obedience to God’s authority.
Sinners who resist making a choice for God must be admonished and brought to a new understanding of God’s call on all lives. Sinners must be told not to wait until they feel more worthy of the mercy of God. Suffering under conviction for a considerable time is not necessary. God desires them to accept God’s mercy and relief from confusion. God requires sinners not to wait on different feelings before they submit to God. They will feel differently after they choose to accept Jesus Christ as their
Lord and Savior. “What God requires of you, is the present act of your own mind, in turning from sin to holiness, and from the service of Satan to the service of the living
God.”30 God does not want sinners to wait until their hearts are changed. The very act of repentance is a change of heart; repentance requires choice and not only a desire.
Being a Christian means taking action to change one’s life in order to be Christlike.
28 McLoughlin, Lectures, 368. 29 McLoughlin, Lectures, 370. 30 McLoughlin, Lectures, 373. 28
1.2.6 Instructions to Converts (Lecture XIX)
“A real Christian has no need to doubt” their salvation.31 Finney refers to new converts as young converts. He recommends that young converts should join some church of Christ immediately upon their decision to follow Jesus.32 When a church examines a young convert for membership, they must remember that young converts would not be acquainted with the whole system of divinity and cannot answer every question of theology. It is Bible study that leads to true doctrine and theology.
Instructions on Christianity should be offered by the church that they join. “They should be taught to go forward all the time, and grow in grace continually.”33 Young converts should be taught to distinguish between emotion and voluntary decision of the mind
(religious principle). Finney defined emotion as “a state of mind of which we are conscious, and which we call feeling, an involuntary state of mind, that arises of course when we are in certain circumstance or under certain influences.”34 New converts should have a firm determination to act out duty and to obey the will of God and not respond to emotion. For Finney, duty to the Christian community through prayer and action is required by God even when one does not feel like doing the chores set before them. All that the convert owns belongs to the community of Christ and is at the disposal of God. Constant prayer enables converts to act in a Christian manner and
31 McLoughlin, Lectures, 387. 32 McLoughlin, Lectures, 389. 33 McLoughlin, Lectures, 396. 34 McLoughlin, Lectures, 399. 29
brings soundness in the faith. Finney clearly instructs ministers and churches to pay strict attention to nurturing converts into strong Christian citizens.
1.2.7 Growth in Grace (Lecture XXII)
Finney’s Growth in Grace lecture was the last of his lectures in this series. “Grace means holiness.”35 A person grows closer and closer to holiness the more that they live a
Christian life. Living the Christian life means gradually finding joy in selfless acts, making voluntary decisions with the mind instead of only heart-felt decisions, developing a growing love for God and man while having less self love, having an abhorrence to sin, having a desire for fewer material objects, exercising a forgiving spirit, increasing delight in fellowship with the saints, becoming more charitable, experiencing less anxiety about worldly things, becoming ready to relinquish earthly properties to
God, and being a willing confessor of sin. If a person is slowly growing in grace, then watch for levity, censoriousness, anger, pride, selfishness, sloth, envy, ambition, and impure thoughts. If one finds that they are backsliding, they must renew their conviction to God through confession and repentance. All “New Measures” identified by Finney were to aid the world in ushering in the Millennium that would create a society reflective of God's inclusiveness of men and women of all races, nations, and economic levels as expediently as humanly possible through God’s power.
35 McLoughlin, Lectures, 447. 30
1.3 Who Opposed Finney’s Revivals?
Finney faced opposition from Methodist theologians, Old School Calvinism and
Finney himself as he reflected on the early revivals. While living, Finney intentionally did not challenge his opposition because he wanted to bring about unity on earth, which would lead to the millennium. Finney was hoping that his opposition would simply have a change of heart and realize that they too served the same God and sought the same means as he did. However, this unity of heart never occurred.
Horace Bushnell and Orestes A. Brownson, both with Methodist connections through parents or experience, opposed Finney's Revival methods.36 Bushnell felt that souls won at revivals were not retained souls. Revivals were emotionalism.
Softly and tenderly Bushnell denounced a kind of public piety that is strenuous and fiery on great occasions, but wants the beauty of
wants domesticity of character.37
For Bushnell, revival did not "sustain its gains."38 The household should be the bosom of the church that raises the Christian child. "Faith would flow out from parents and around, through, and into children."39
36 Smith, New Measures, 239, quoting Horace Bushnell. 37 Smith, New Measures, 240. 38 Smith, New Measures, 240. 39 Smith, New Measures, 240. 31
Brownson argued that one could not be a Christian without the church.40 The church is the living organism of Christ. Without the church, there is no salvation. A witness was required to lead someone to Christ. The Church was God's chosen witness.
Some of his Old School Calvinist opponents were Lyman Beecher, Asahel
Nettleton, Reverend William R. Weeks, Charles Hodge, and Reverend Albert Baldwin
Dod. Finney did not challenge the opposition until after Nettleton died and his biography, which further attempted to discredit Finney, was published. Finney’s friends encouraged him to write his memoirs in defense of his methods. He wrote his memoirs but did not live to see them published. In 1876, after Finney’s death, his Revival Memoirs were published in defense of his “New Measures” revival methods.
Lyman Beecher “held a Federalist political philosophy, which maintained that the political, social, and moral life of any decent society should be controlled by the educated, the well born, and the well-to-do.”41 Beecher wanted to keep revivalism respectable so that he could use it as a tool against Unitarianism in Boston. As one way of discrediting Finney, Beecher wrote a letter against Finney and his “New Measures” that the Oberlin Evangelist magazine published with a disclaimer on October 8, 1845. The disclaimer stressed growth in grace and progressive holiness. Sanctification was defended as not the same as perfectionism. “Beecher later came to admire Finney, but he
40 Smith, New Measures, 244. 41 McLoughlin, Lectures, xviii. 32
was always ambivalent toward him.”42 Throughout the nineteenth century, the entire
Lectures on Revivals was uplifted by clergy and held fast as the way to evangelize the world.
“Nettleton’s great interest in quieting Finney was to preserve the tradition of conservative revivalism that since 1811 he had practiced with good success as an itinerant evangelist among New England Congregationalists.”43 Nettleton referred to
Finney and his followers as the ragamuffins, the irregulars, the ignorant, the insurgents, and the ignoble vulgus.44 These slanders were against Finney because Nettleton felt that
Finney was attempting to arouse the lower class against their betters.45 Finney presented salvation for all people. He believed that all people were chosen by God for salvation. This meant that social and political reform would result through
Christianization of all peoples. Nettleton rode his horse into Finney’s revival area and presented him with a letter of petition from an Old School Calvinist requesting that
Finny not hold any more revivals in Albany and central New York.46
Reverend William R. Weeks was one of the most vigorous opposers of Finney’s views because Finney did not adhere to Orthodox Calvinism and employed radical new
42 Rosell, The Memoirs, 144. 43 McLoughlin, Lectures, xvii. 44 McLoughlin, Lectures, xix. 45 McLoughlin, Lectures, xix. 46 Rosell, The Memoirs, 195. 33
measures to stir up emotion.47 Weeks referred to Finney as “a wild man who was wreaking havoc with the churches in the West.”48 Weeks’ strong opposition to Finney was one reason that Beecher and Nettleton decided “to put pressure on Finney in order to mollify him and turn the ‘Presbygational’ minister and church people of the West against him.”49 Old School Calvinistic schools located in Princeton and Philadelphia presented the principal opposition to Lectures on Revivals. Charles Hodge, a professor at
Princeton, and his friend Reverend Albert Baldwin Dod, a graduate of Princeton, both opposed Finney. Hodge was the editor of Biblical Repertory and Theological Review which opposed Finney’s 'New Measures." Dod felt that Finney’s measures were fanatical and played havoc with church discipline.
From January 29, 1845 through June 24, 1846, Finney wrote a series of articles called Letters on Revivals published in the Oberlin Evangelist. This was ten years after
Finney’s Lectures on Revivals was published. Finney expressed his concern for revivals becoming more and more superficial since he had printed his Revival Lectures. The decline of the number of revivals being held was of concern to the general Christian public. “Recognizing the considerable influence his own career and publication had had in establishing the theory and practice of modern revivalism, Finney offered some
47 Rosell, The Memoirs, xvii. 48 Rosell, The Memoirs, xvii. 49 Rosell, The Memoirs, xvii. 34
apologies and corrections to rescue revivalism from disrepute.”50 The articles from
January 29, 1845 through December 3, 1945 that were available for review depicted a thoughtful analysis of Finney’s revival measures and an analysis as to why his measures sometimes failed.
Finney felt that he had not adequately explained his revival methods and therefore left ministers and churches without needed direction. He did not retract any of his basic theological doctrines nor reverse any of the basic principles for promoting revivals. He did suggest that his methods had been abused. Fanaticism, or the use of emotionalism to attract converts, was one weakness of recent revivals. “When sinners and backsliders are really convicted by the Holy Ghost, they are greatly ashamed of themselves.”51
Those who do not believe that the Holy Spirit brings converts to their knees in total depravity do not truly understand the work of the Spirit. “The Spirit of Christ is the mighty energizing power of the soul.”52 However, “excitement where it exists in high degrees exposes the sinner to great delusions.”53 Delusions may lead one to irrational choices. “There is a special danger that fanaticism will spring up under the influence of
50 McLoughlin, Lectures, xlix. 51 Charles Grandison Finney, Oberlin Evangelist: Letters on Revivals. (No. 2. February 12, 1845. Vol. VII), 27. 52 Finney, Oberlin Evangelist, No. 4. March 12, 1845. Vol. VII, 43-44. 53 Finney, Oberlin Evangelist, No. 5. April 23, 1845. Vol. VII, 68-69. This article was labeled No. 5 as was the March 26 article. I wondered if perhaps this was a typo when printing. 35
infernal agency.”54 It is imperative that persons not only accept Christ with their hearts and emotion but also through their intellect. “I have often seen persons in so much excitement that the intelligence seemed to be almost stultified, and anything but reason seemed to have the control of the will. This is not religion but enthusiasm.”55 Finney said that he had rethought his stance on enthusiasm and had decided that he had more confidence in conversion that occurred with calmness of mind. He warned against promoting emotional revivals among children. "God’s Spirit leads men by their intelligence, and not through mere impression made on the sensibility.”56
Another error of revivals for which Finney took blame was the lack of instruction as set forth for new converts. If instructions had been accurately given, the true idea of religion would have been set in the convert’s minds.57 It is the preachers’ responsibility to bring forth the instructions for converts. In preaching, the minister should not “puff up” the congregation with philosophy and metaphysics but deliver the facts of revelation as witnesses in the gospels.58 The object of revivals was not only to save souls but to initiate a life of holiness in the convert and backslider. In answer to why the number of revivals had declined, Finney said, “Want of personal holiness, unction, power in prayer, and in preaching the word want of holy living and consecration to
54 Finney, Oberlin Evangelist, No. 9, 76. 55 Finney, Oberlin Evangelist, No. 5. April 23, 1845. Vol. VII, 68-69. 56 Finney, Oberlin Evangelist, No. 12. July 2, 1845. Vol. VII, 107. 57 Finney, Oberlin Evangelist, No. 5. March 26, 1845. Vol. VII, 51. 58 Finney, Oberlin Evangelist, No. 6. April 5, 1845. Vol. VII, 59. 36
ministry there, no doubt, are the principal reasons why revivals are so few and far between, and of so superficial character at the present day.”59 It was not the measures for holding revivals that erred, but the improper use of the measures that had created the decline in revivals. In 1868, fully convicted that his measures were good accurate aids for holding revivals, Charles Grandison Finney republished, almost unedited, his
Lectures on Revivals.
1.4 Conclusion
Finney was a God called voice crying out from the wilderness of a country embarking upon a civil war. He reached into the past and bridged the faithful practices as set forth by call, scripture, and empowerment of the Holy Spirit to lead the way out of the darkness into the light that would produce a social holiness that he believed could rule the land. Finney borrowed John Wesley’s and George Whitefield’s methods for conducting revivals. Finney himself admitted in his Memoirs that there was nothing added to his methods that had not already been tried and established by Scriptures.
However, the Old School Calvinists did not agree with Finney’s measures because they set into print explicit directions for clergy and churches to evangelize everyone into
God’s Kingdom and not just the elected. Finney’s “New Measures” illustrated how to
59 Finney, Oberlin Evangelist, No. 21. February 16, 1845. Vol. VII, 115. These lectures were numbered but were not published in sequence.
37
gain and retain new converts. Under Finney's directives, social change and equality for all peoples were inevitable. God's reign was being ushered into American society.
Lyman Beecher’s articles against God’s free grace, Asahel Nettleton’s public displays of conflict, William Weeks’, opposition to emotionalism, and Charles Hodge’s teachings and articles in The Biblical Repertory and Theological Review all aided Finney’s popularity. Since Finney did not refute their accusations, these articles and public oppositions were major advertisements for Finney’s revivals. People wanted to see what was happening. What was all the fuss about? What did emotionalism look like? Finney’s opposition piqued people's interest.
Finney established his dedication to his methods in 1835 by initially writing down his steps for clergy and churches to utilize, through his publication of his Letters on Revivals in the Oberlin Evangelist, and through his re-publication of his Lectures on
Revivals in 1866. Finney’s Memoirs describe the opposition that he faced and the success that came on the heels of that opposition. It was against the opposition that Finney’s
“New Measures” gained popularity and prevailed. Opposition caused Finney and his followers to examine what they were doing and to rededicate themselves to their evangelical tasks of ushering in the millennium. Since Finney did not publicly defend his measures against his accusers while he was alive, the only public advertisements for his revivals came from his opposition’s letters and public displays of conflict against him. Finney’s methods became institutionalized during his lifetime and remain so today,
38
mainly due to the un-relinquishing determination of his opposition to eliminate Finney’s methods which were scripturally sound and proven effective by prior evangelists.
Finney’s "New Measures" reshaped the landscape of how church was defined in
America because it focused on worship and preaching instead of the original intent of
Wesley’s methods of discipling, accountability, and service; his theology merged church and state blurring the boundaries between God and country.
39
2. Who was Phoebe Palmer?
This revelation holy, just, and true Though oft I read, it seems forever new; While light from heaven upon its pages rest, I feel its power, and with it I am blessed. Henceforth, I take thee as my future guide, Let naught from thee my youthful heart divide. And then, if late or early death be mine, All will be well, since I, O Lord, am Thine!1
God called Phoebe Palmer and touched her with a tongue of fire to speak God's truth to a world that was in turmoil. She was a lay person who used the resources and knowledge that she had at hand to spread the way of holiness in the world as she knew it. This section contains biographical information and personality, convictions and beliefs, outlines her holiness practices including the Tuesday Meetings to promote holiness, the shorter way to holiness, and her thoughts on revivals and preaching with unction. Palmer's practices drew some opposition from the political realm that stood against equality and inclusivity for all people. Phoebe Palmer reignited the flame of mysticism and monastic lifestyles in Methodism as a way of Christian life and discipline through preaching, her own daily discipline and practices.
1 Phoebe Palmer, Poem inscribed on the inside cover of her Bible at age 11. Published in Christian History, August 8, 2008. www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/moversandshakers/palmer.htmt . Last read July 6, 2013. 40
2.1 Biographical Information and Personality
Phoebe Palmer (1807-1874), a poet and "the mother of the holiness movement, was a native of Manhattan, New York, the fourth of sixteen children born to devout
Methodist parents Dorothea Wade and Henry Worral."2 "At the age of 19 Phoebe Worral married Dr. Walter C. Palmer, a homeopathic physician who received his training at
Rutgers University." 3 Their marriage was happy and "egalitarian, with each of them regarding the other as a soul mate and partner in ministry."4
Unusual for her times, Palmer simultaneously experienced marriage, children, and a career. She believed that to disregard her call to ministry would be to disobey God and demonstrate a lack of trust in both God and her husband.5 The Palmers attended and participated in Allen Street Methodist Church in Manhattan, New York.6 The couple practiced the same methods of discipline that Phoebe had been taught in her childhood home: reading of scripture morning and evening, prayers, singing, and scripture memorization by the children. She rose at 4 a.m. for two hours of "reading the Scriptures and other devotional exercises: half an hour for closet duties at midday . . . if practicable
2 Elaine A. Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer. (Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2009), 3. 3 Heath, Naked Faith, 5. 4 Heath, Naked Faith, 5. 5 Heath, Naked Faith, 5. 6 Thomas C. Oden, Phoebe Palmer: Selected Writings (New York: Paulist Press 1988), 10. 41
I will get an hour to spend with God at the close of day."7 The couple had six children of which only three survived to adulthood. "Alexander, their firstborn, died at nine months and their second son, Samuel, died at seven weeks. These losses were a 'crushing trial' for Palmer, not only because of the normal grief process but because she saw the deaths as divine chastening for having loved her children too much."8 She rethought her priorities and consecrated "herself more fully to God."9
The idea of idolatrous love of family "as the besetting sin of women" was part of
John Wesley's teachings.10 Palmer consistently prayed that God would release her from the bondage of love for husband and children above her love for God. "The death of her third child and eldest daughter, Eliza, in a tragic crib fire, became the ultimate springboard for Palmer's entrance into a lifetime of public ministry."11 During her ministry, "she suffered from theological opposition (some of it in print), was seriously ill several times with painful ailments and, in later life, with what appears to be Bright's
Disease, and she struggle mightily with 'intense mental conflicts.'"12
7 Mrs. Phoebe Palmer, The Way of Holiness, With Notes By The Way: Being A Narrative of Religious Experience Resulting From a Determination To Be A Bible Christian, (New York: Piercy and Reed, 1843; New Edition with Preface by the Rev. Thomas Collins, London, Alexander Heylin.), 80-81. 8 Richard Wheatley, The Life and Letters of Mrs. Phoebe Palmer, (New York: Palmer, 1881; New York: Garland, 1984), 26. 9 Heath, Naked Faith, 7. 10 Heath, Naked Faith, 7. 11 Heath, Naked Faith, 8. 12 Heath, Naked Faith, 8. 42
"During her thirty-seven years of public ministry, 1837-1874, she became one of the most influential women of her era."13 Palmer's dedication and commitment to God sustained her and empowered her to preach, teach, lead, and serve all the days of her life. She utilized Holy empowerment to answer her spiritual calling and usher in the reign of God in her present age.
2.2 Palmer's Convictions and Beliefs
Palmer practiced Methodism as a way of life and service to Jesus. She learned these methods from her father, Henry Worral, who was influenced as a teenager by
Methodist society meetings originated in John Wesley's theology and methods for class meetings. The way of holiness of life, serving the world as one's parish, and spreading scriptural holiness throughout the land, as taught by the Methodists, impacted Worral throughout his life. Through her father's influence, Palmer's daily life and spiritual formation was richly sculpted by Methodism. Palmer built on John Wesley's model and strengthened the Methodist Church through commitment to house churches and accountability groups focusing on crossing gender, racial, and class boundaries. Her
Holy Spirit driven call to holiness brought new converts, nurtured them, and sent them out to serve. God was the center of her whole life and being.
13 John A. Roche, Mrs. "Phoebe Palmer," LR (Feb. 1866): 65-70; cf. W. J. McCutcheon, "Phoebe Palmer," in Notable American Women, vol. 3, pp. 12ff. (Phoebe Palmer by Oden page 24) 43
Her parents governed their home as a pious household of the times and with loving discipline.14 Family devotions were held morning and evening as a means of shaping the children's lives and spiritual health. Reading the Bible and memorizing scripture was a primary means of spiritual formation, education, and family conversation. Palmer was taught to offer Jesus sacrificial gifts; however, she defined herself as inadequate at this calling which led her to spiritual frustration. Palmer described herself as lacking faith, courage, and resolve, and as one who "shrinks from crosses."15 She was spiritually motivated with a "sensitive religious conscience," confessing that she had never willfully disobeyed her parents.16 Like many mystics, she constantly considered herself "spiritually deficient."17 She sought a devout way of life as a sacrifice of self to God's molding and shaping as a means of transformation of self and the world.
There is no record of her formal education other than her spiritual formation at home. There are records that many founders and presidents of major American universities and colleges were her confidants and associates. "All of these persons had long-term, well-established association with Mrs. Palmer, either as personal friends, serious correspondents, Tuesday Meeting participators, or direct contributors to her
14 Heath, Naked Faith, 3. 15 Wheatley, Life and Letters, 19. 16 Heath, Naked Faith, 3. 17 Heath, Naked Faith, 3. 44
movement and its journal, the Guide to Holiness."18 Her publications and teachings illustrate that she was well-versed in the works that were standard for her day and age as a Methodist class leader. Palmer was the first female appointed to "permanently lead a mixed class meeting. This appointment came from Rev. J.L. Gilder in 1839 and gave official sanction to women to teach and lead men as well as women."19
In 1939, she and her sister, Sarah Lankford, encouraged the establishment of the "Guide to Christian Perfection, later Guide to Holiness . . . until the end of the century it remained the primary organ of literary productivity, information, and general clearing house for the ecumenically-oriented evangelical holiness revival movement. . . In 1870, it had the largest circulation lists among religious journals in American (37,000 subscribers).20
"In addition to public speaking, Palmer wrote 18 books, many articles, and edited the widely-read periodical Guide to Holiness (1864-1874)."21 Thomas Oden, in Phoebe
Palmer, expounded on numerous reasons why rediscovery of Palmer reveals a source of
American spirituality.
Palmer "developed an effective strategy with distinctive methods for the holiness revival which ultimately influenced millions of lives. She is arguably the best representative figure, male or female, of the beginning of the holiness tradition of spirituality in America, which subsequently has continued to have astonishing influence around the world."22
18 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 4, 136. 19 Nancy A. Hardesty, Women Called to Witness: Evangelical Feminism in the Nineteenth Century Second Edition, (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee, 1999), 10. 20 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 6. 21 Heath, Naked Faith, 11. 22 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 5. 45
Oden says that Palmer’s influence is replicated in the Wesleyan, Holiness,
Pentecostal, and Charismatic worldwide religions in addition to Pentecostal Holiness
Church, Primitive Methodists, Pilgrim Holiness, Four-Square Gospel Church, Apostolic
Faith Movement, and several member groups of The Christian Holiness Association derived out of Palmer's theology and strategies which were based in Methodism. She became the most influential woman in the fastest growing religious group in mid- nineteenth century America-Methodism.23 "From within her sphere of influence in
Methodism, numerous leaders emerged, catechetics developed, church legislation was fashioned, a social reformation sought."24 Her theology and spiritual guidance eventually birthed the Church of the Nazarene, the Church of God, and the Salvation
Army as well as Pentecostal groups like the Assemblies of God and the Pentecostal
Holiness Church. Although she did not claim to promote or advocate a secularized egalitarian feminism or even "'Women's Preaching,' technically so called,"25 she became a model for numerous later advocates of women's ordination, women's political rights, the women's temperance movement, and women becoming actively engaged in social change in urban life among the poor.26
23 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 6. 24 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 6. 25 Phoebe Palmer, Promise Of The Father on A Neglected Specialty Of The Last Days: Addressed to The Clergy and Laity of all Christian Communities, (New York: W.C. Palmer, Jr., 1872), 1. 26 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 7. 46
Her book, The Promise of the Father, was an apologetic expounding on scripture as justification for women preaching and not a political stance for women's rights. She organized and promoted mission emphases for Christians to participate in and developed practices for ushering in the Millennium and the reign of God for social justice and holiness. She persuaded the Ladies Home Missionary Society to establish and organize a mission in lower Manhattan, New York's Five Points Mission on the
Bowery.27 It is considered to be one of American's first inner city missions.28
Palmer’s way of life and practices brought forth converts and grew the Church.
She was one of the first women of the nineteenth century to become a celebrated public figure, a widely travelled, much sought public speaker, and a highly visible religious leader and author.29 Palmer is the "link between Wesleyan revivalism and modern
Pentecostalism, between eighteenth century perfectionism and twentieth century glossolalia, between Aldersgate and Asuza Street,"30 and between Finney's New
Measures and what the twenty-first century deems as fresh expression practices. From her birth until her death, she was blessed with parents, spouse, children, friends, and strangers who recognized her spiritual gifts and provided a forum for her to express
God’s own voice to the world as she knew it.
27 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 7. 28 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 7. 29 Anne C. Loveland, "Domesticity and Religion in the Antebellum Period: The Career of Phoebe Palmer," The Historian 39, no. 3 (May, 1977); 455-71 (DRAP). 30 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 16. 47
2.3 What were Palmer's Holiness Practices?
Much like Finney, Palmer published her theology and practices. She used scripture as a means to justify her calling and practices. The roots of her theology came through John Wesley's teachings and the New Measures of Charles Finney that were ushering in moral reform and social justice. Nancy Hardesty connects Finney and
Palmer through the "Five Points Mission" established during both of their lifetimes for the purpose of moral reform and Christianization of the poor.31 Finney charged women to "marshall themselves in bands and become a terror to evildoers!"32 These women who became known as Finneyites were caught up in revivalism of the 1820’s and 1830’s spread by Charles Finney.33 Hardesty identifies the Ladies Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church as being established through the Finneyite movement.
These women were originally members of the New York Female Missionary Society and under the influence of Palmer.34 The Tuesday Meetings to Promote Holiness, The Shorter
Way to Holiness, Revivals and Preaching with Unction, and written communications and publications were holiness practices that set Palmer apart and inspired new converts to accept Christianity as a way of life participating in the reign of God.
31 Hardesty, Women Called to Witness, 115. 32 Hardesty, Women Called to Witness, 111. 33 Hardesty, Women Called to Witness, xi. 34 Hardesty, Women Called to Witness, 112. 48
2.3.1 The Tuesday Meetings to Promote Holiness
The Tuesday Meetings established in 1836 were informal house meetings including personal testimonials, "'talks' (which would have been called 'sermons' if given by men), exposition on biblical texts, and prayer."35 Palmer and her sister, Sarah, relied on John Wesley's methods for bands and class meetings to establish meetings for the promotion of holiness offering women a forum in which to witness, preach, and teach one another. Class meetings grew and endured for over fifty years.36 The class structure was the key element that grew the Methodist Church in America. It became the catalyst that promoted Palmer's theology, revivalism, and ministry from the walls of her home into educational institutions via communications with new found friendships established with educators and men in power and with bishops and political leaders of her day. Men tutored under Palmer's theology and practices were elected to the
Episcopacy. She also influenced church legislation and social reformation, abolition of white slave labor, free rent housing for the homeless, the care of orphans, alcoholic rehabilitation, prohibition, and ministry to immigrants. Those who attended were encouraged to become "'Bible Christians' and surrender themselves utterly to the 'way of
35 Heath, Naked Faith, 9. 36 Heath, Naked Faith, 9. 49
holiness,' meaning to the Lordship of Christ, receiving the cleansing and empowering baptism of the Holy Spirit."37
Her December 5, 1839 diary entry reveals her expectations or rules for participation in class meetings: Abide by the Methodist Discipline rules and doctrines, be familiar with Wesley's tract containing the "Character of Methodist," the subject of holiness as fundamental doctrine, covenant with God to pray at least three times a day, cultivate a sympathy of feeling among the members to bear with one another's burdens, and "impress upon them the importance of praying for the one who has charge over them."38 Palmer's class meetings were founded on John Wesley's teachings as a means of
Christian accountability and mission service to the community. The weekly practice was to meet in the home of converts and instructors much like the first disciples of Jesus
Christ.
2.3.2 The Shorter Way to Holiness
Palmer defines holiness as a state in which all the Lord's redeemed ones should live.
She (Palmer) saw that holiness, instead of being an attainment beyond her reach, was a state of grace in which every one should live; that the service was indeed a "reasonable service," inasmuch as the command, "Be ye holy," is founded upon
37 Heath, Naked Faith, 9, quoted Harold E. Raser, Phoebe Palmer: Her Life and Thought, (Lewiston, New York: Mellen, 1987), 44-48. 38 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 137. Originally quoted in Memoirs, 178-179. 50
the absolute right with God, as our Creator, Preserver, and Redeemer, has upon the entire service of His creatures.39
Wesley's theology of entire sanctification in this lifetime, perfect love, was embraced by Palmer and her sister and was the basis for their leadership in New York and later in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Sanctification for Palmer was a state of holiness inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was what was referred to as Holy
Spirit Baptism an instantaneous assurance and an empowerment by the Holy Spirit.
The shorter way involves three steps, each of which has its own assumptions about Scripture, faith and the nature of salvation. These steps are entire consecration, faith, and testimony. The warp and woof of the whole process is Palmer's understanding of what holiness is, how it is gained and how it can be lost. For her, holiness is the experience of being entirely devoted to God, of being a living sacrifice on the altar of Christ, of being continuously "washed, cleansed, and renewed after the image of God" as one is ceaselessly presented to God.40
These three steps are accredited to Palmer's ability to clearly articulate and write orthodox theology. She made theology simple for the simple speaking man. Palmer believed that the seeking of entire sanctification is an ongoing process. Sanctification is exemplified in what she taught as "altar theology" or entire devotion to God as a way of self-sacrificing one's self to God's molding.41 Palmer relied on Matthew 23:19 in which
Jesus directs his critics to Exodus 29:37 (Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar, and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy: whatever touches the altar shall become holy).
39 Palmer, The Way of Holiness, Chapter 5 page 15. 40 Heath, Naked Faith, 22. Excerpted in Oden, Phoebe Palmer, Selected Writings, 189, The text is originally from Palmer, Entire Devotion to God, section II. 41 Heath, Naked Faith, 95. 51
The altar sanctifies the gift, and Christ himself is the altar as defined in Hebrews 13:10
(We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat).42 Sacrifice is required for righteousness to take place and it cannot take place without the blood offering of Christ who is the altar on which we lay ourselves for sanctification.
Elaine Heath, co-director of the Missional Wisdom Foundation is discussed in
Chapter IV, draws six cogent distinctions between Wesley's and Palmer's theology of sanctification and notes that Palmer did not intentionally alter Wesley's theology.43
Following John Fletcher, Palmer identifies sanctification with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and increasingly in her later years uses the language of "baptism of the Holy Spirit" to describe sanctification. Next, she develops Adam Clarke's focus linking holiness with power. Third, she appears to stress the instantaneous over the gradual aspects of sanctification, again following Clarke. The fourth shift is the location of sanctification in the believer's journey. Wesley emphasized "going on the perfection," with complete sanctification as the end goal. Palmer presented the shorter way of sanctification as the beginning of the way of holiness, not the goal at the end of the journey. Fifth, Palmer simplified and made more clear to her contemporaries the process of sanctification. . . Finally, and perhaps most controversially in her theology, Palmer stresses that one needs no other initial evidence for having been sanctified other than the words of the Bible. Assurance need not be based on having one's heart "strangely warmed" or any other external, subjective manifestation.44
Palmer's influence was readily accepted and popular but not intended as an intentional oppositional theological stance against Wesley's teachings. She relied on the
Bible and its teachings as the means of knowing God and experiencing holiness.
42 Heath, Naked Faith, 22. 43 Heath, Naked Faith, 27. Originally identified in Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 9-10 quoted from Charles E. White. 44 Heath, Naked Faith, 27. 52
2.3.3 Revivals and Preaching with Unction
"Wesleyan/Holiness women often preached at camp meetings for the promotion of holiness, which were popular gatherings in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries."45 Revivals were held in secluded, out of the way places where thousands of people could camp and gather for a week or more. Camp meetings were often places where cottages were erected for revival purposes. Revival was for the purpose of sanctification and holiness. Men were mostly in charge of preaching, but women were sometimes invited to speak. "In some cases, sanctification in itself initiated a woman's call."46 The Wesleyan/Holiness movement valued a divine calling.47 Palmer's call to preach is recorded in her journal entry from August, 1837.
A few days after I first received the witness of holiness, I was at a meeting where there was a number of persons deeply agonized in spirit for the salvation of God. Some were groaning for justifying grace, and others for full redemption. O, thought I, if there were only some one here to talk about the simple way of salvation by faith! "Why do you not do it?" was suggested. O, thought I, it would require a special commission to undertake a duty so formidable; for among the suppliants for full salvation were one or more ministers, and other persons of influence. I was at a camp meeting, and I hastened to a retired place, that I might, without interruption, inquire of God. But I had scarcely knelt before I received the gentle chiding of the Spirit thus: "Did you not, in supplicating guidance for the day, ask that you might be filled with knowledge of the will of God, and with all wisdom and spiritual understanding?" When you asked, did you not believe that you received the thing you desired? Why then did you not let your conduct correspond with your faith, by acting promptly?". . .48
45 Susie C. Stanley, Holy Boldness: Women Preachers: Autobiographies and the Sanctified Self, (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2002), 141. 46 Stanley, Holy Boldness, 101. 47 Stanley, Holy Boldness, 101. 48 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 131. Originally in Phoebe Palmer's Faith and Its Effects (pp. 262-65). 53
Palmer's authority to preach came from God. "Rev. A. Lowrey, a eulogist, commented on Palmer's credentials: 'Her license came from no subordinate source. She was accredited from on high. Her authority and credentials were conferred by the Holy
Ghost. She was set apart and gifted as a gentle leader. . . She was vested with a remarkable power to produce immediate results.'"49
She has been described as preaching with a "tongue of fire" or what some deemed a "firebrand preacher." Acts 2:2-4 teaches that on the day of Pentecost “suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak….” They witnessed to the world outside of those walls with boldness and conviction. Their tongues of fire were empowered by the Holy Ghost. Yet, she was considered to be a gentle spoken person. Her gentleness was a mark of love and grace that brought people of varied educational, class, and ethnic origins to Christ and redefined the perception of the world. For instance, Palmer's social holiness directly correlated with God's Kingdom and an inclusive and diverse Kingdom. Her theology was one of social holiness and service to all people.
Due to her effective sermons and theology, Palmer was often invited to preach at revivals where ". . . her message and teachings were centered in pardon and purity with
49 Stanley, Holy Boldness, 8. 54
conversion, grounded in classical Protestant teaching of justification by grace through faith, and sanctification, that the Holy Spirit seeks to reclaim the whole person."50 The empowerment of the Holy Spirit led the converts to a holiness of life through methods of being in a self-sacrificing and Holy Spirit-empowered relationship with Jesus.
2.4 Who Opposed Palmer's Theology and Practices?
Many people were in favor of Palmer's theology and practices. Under her tutelage, the Methodist Church grew and the reign of God became prevalent through classes, missions, and social justice movements. However, there were those who opposed Palmer. Oden points out that "Mrs. Palmer anticipated numerous subsequent feminist concerns and modern exegetical procedures. She anticipated 'audience criticism' in the interpretation of text on women, taking into account the special circumstances of the audience to which a text was addressed."51
The politics of the day were opposed to social justice, equality, and inclusive participation in the reign of God in their day and time. Palmer challenged racism, classism, and sexism. Her Guide to Holiness was the venue for the voice of the oppressed.52 Hiram Mattison, a polemicist, was opposed to her theology of attainable sanctification. He charged, "that sanctification was a mere consecration; that the Holy
Spirit was ignored; and that she believed that the faith by which we are to be sanctified
50 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 12. 51 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 32. 52 Hardesty, Women Called to Witness, 115. 55
is to believe that we are sanctified."53 J.H. Perry wrote Reply to Professor Mattison's
"Answer," Etc.; Being the Summing Up of The Case of Professor Mattison Against Mrs. Palmer in 1856. He printed Palmer's and Mattison's letters as well as letters of other participants of the theological conversation including those of Reverend Creagh of the Allen Street
Methodist Church. Mattison, in his Calm Review publication, accused Palmer of writing letters to her pastor, Reverend Creagh, against his preaching "entire consecration is not entire sanctification."54 Perry wrote that Mrs. Palmer said, "that this statement was a sheer fabrication."55 There was no proof ever presented that Palmer actually wrote the letters. Palmer’s gentle way of delivering the truth about God and her exceptional ability to make allies in high places along with her self-discipline and holy empowerment granted her little opposition and opened many doors that women of her day did not open or enter. She crossed gender barriers because she was filled with the power of the
Holy Spirit and guided by God’s light and voice as a vessel to usher in social holiness.
2.5 Conclusion
Like Finney, Phoebe Palmer relied on John Wesley's theology and methods for ushering in the reign of God during her lifetime. Her daily disciplines led her to a higher level of holiness and sanctification. She truly sought to honor God through her way of
53 Oden, Phoebe Palmer, 13 originally H. Mattison, "Believe," CAJ, Dec. 20, 1855, p. 201. CF J.H. Perry, "Prof. Mattison and His Eight Propositions," CAJ (Jan. 10, 1856): 10. 54 J. H. Perry, Reply to Prof. Mattison's "Answer" Etc.; Being the Summing up of the Case of Professor Mattison Against Mrs. Palmer, (New York: John A. Gray's Salamander Printing-Office, 1956), 39. 55 Perry, Reply, 19. 56
life. She saw it as a Christian obligation to overcome barriers to Christ such as racism, classism, and sexism, which ushered in the reign of God in her present age.
Her uncomplicated three-step shorter way to Christ, articulating Wesley's theology, reached the masses, increased the Kingdom of God, and demanded social holiness as a way of life. These beliefs and teachings are reflected in her mass publications and preaching. The recorded numbers of converts under her tutelage demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit working through her ministry.
Her class meeting requirements of holy practices and service to the poor inspired a new perspective for what it means to abide in God's Kingdom and who is welcome in
God's Kingdom. Her preaching and teaching inspired great leaders and strengthened theological debates. The culture of the day did not condone men for publically arguing with women. Would there have been more opposition to her theology and teachings in this day and time when men and women are more socially equitable?
Phoebe Palmer's relationship with Christ was a personal one that led her to testify and speak out for Jesus. She took the responsibility of being a Christian personally and she taught others to do the same. Her disciplined life allowed her the courage and faith required to answer God’s call to preach with unction, teach, write, establish accountability groups and usher in the millennium to all peoples so that the practices of social holiness became the norm to Christians as a means to usher in God’s kingdom in their present age.
57
Part II 3. Identify 21st Century Church Growth Practices of Fresh Expressions and Missional Communities
Because culture is in a new paradigm, the old wineskins are collapsing. It is not the faith that needs to be changed but the paradigm or the wineskin in which Christianity is communicated.1
On September 11, 2001, I unlocked the front doors of my small rural church so that the teenagers and their parents could enter for prayer. Fear was rampant; terrorism had come to the home front. Fear seemed to be creeping into our very souls. It seemed that the questions were similar to those of the nineteenth century as this country moved towards the Civil War. How would we combat this looming darkness and fear along with the struggle of how God fit into this inner conflict? As in the past, God is calling forth prophets who call us to scriptural holiness, Holy Spirit empowered ministries, and daily practices that eradicate the darkness in our lives and illumine it with the light of
Christ. The Fresh Expressions Movement along with Elaine Heath are voices crying out of the wilderness to repent and turn toward the cross of Jesus Christ. These voices, as in the past, remind us to abide as Disciples of Christ and follow Christ's leadership.
3.1 What are fresh expressions?
God sent Jesus into a world that was a theological mess. He came as a babe born in a stable in the dark of night. Into the imposed terror of the governmental system of
1 Webber, Robert E., The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World, (Michigan: Baker Books, 2002), 15. 58
their day, God came to earth to change the tides. He tried a new thing. The religious realm of the day rejected his "new thing." The Gentiles and some Jews recognized the light of God and followed it. Today we might call this new thing that God does "fresh expressions" of his love. The church and the world may reject some of these fresh expressions. Fresh expressions come in unexpected times and ways, just like Jesus.
These fresh expressions are meant to revitalize the church and grow God's Kingdom on earth and for eternity. Because the fresh expressions movement is occurring in our day and time, we often do not recognize it in our midst. Sometimes we reject it by not realizing that it is God at work.
Some ways to identify this movement include identifying the term fresh expressions, the fresh expressions team, and the 2012 Mission Shaped Church report of the
Archbishop's Council and the Anglican-Methodist Working Party's explanation and definition of fresh expressions. The second part addresses the principal features and objectives of fresh expressions. The third part encompasses the opposition to fresh expressions. Fresh Expressions revitalize the Methodist movement of bands and class meetings in America as a way to usher in the reign of God in the present age by creating worship, disciple, and accountability groups for the intent of social holiness and service to the world.
59
3.1.1 The Fresh Expressions Movement
The fresh expressions movement is an evangelical movement that began in the
1950’s. Since the 1950’s, post WWII, and Vatican II, the culture to which the prior evangelist served took on a new landscape. The gospel does not change; the culture to which it is delivered does change and has unique needs. God calls forth leaders to infiltrate diverse cultures acknowledging the presence of Christ amongst us. According to the Fresh Expression website, “fresh expressions” is an initiative to generate new expressions of Christian community for those who are not yet members of any church.2
3.1.2 The Term 'fresh expressions'
The term "fresh expression" originated in the 2004 "Mission-Shaped Church ... report from the working group of the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs
Council."3 The term was coined in order to convey a sense both of newness of form and continuity of theological content.4 “The term consciously echoes the vocation of the
Church of England (set out in the Declaration of Assent) to ‘proclaim afresh’ the Gospel
‘in each generation’…A fresh expression of church embodies the Gospel afresh in contemporary Christian communities.”5 “The term ‘fresh expression of church’ is intended to safeguard two central truths concerning the nature of the Church. First,
2 Fresh Expressions Home Page. http://freshexpressionsus.org/aboutus , 11/20/13. 3 Archbishop's Council on Mission and Public Affairs, Mission-Shaped Church: Church Planting and Fresh Expressions in a Changing Context, (New York: Seabury Books, 2004,2009), vi, 23. 4 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party: Fresh Expression in the Mission of the Church, (London: Church House Publishing, 2012), 37. 5 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 37. 60
Christ is fully present in each community of His disciples. Second, each community is incomplete in itself without being in a relationship with others.”6 North America’s
‘emerging church’ movement is reflective of fresh expressions. The emerging church arose out of the twentieth century’s practical and theological response to the rapidly changing mission context.7
3.1.3 The Fresh Expressions Team
"The Fresh Expressions team was formed in 2004 by the Archbishops of
Canterbury and York and the Methodist Council to resource and enable the development of vibrant and sustainable fresh expression of Church alongside the traditional churches, parishes, circuits, and deaneries across the country."8 A national organization was formed and named "Fresh Expressions." When capital letters are used in reference to "fresh expressions" of the church, then the organization is being referenced.
3.1.4 Mission-Shaped Church Report to the Archbishop's Council
In Mission-Shaped Church the report of the Archbishop's council on mission and public affairs, which focuses on church planting and fresh expressions in a changing context, reports that
6 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 40. 7 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 37. 8 David Goodhew, Andrew Roberts, Michael Volland, Fresh!: An Introduction to Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry,(London: SCM Press, 2012), ix. 61
"It is clear to us that the parochial system remains an essential and central part of the national Church's strategy to deliver incarnational mission. But the existing parochial system alone is no longer able fully to deliver its underlying mission purpose. We need to recognize that a variety of integrated missionary approaches is required...In addition, our diverse consumer culture will never be reached by one standard form of church."9
Different circumstances require unique and diverse approaches to bring in new converts and retain them to usher in the reign of God.
3.1.5 The 2012 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party
The 2012 Report of the Anglican Working Party lists “the following elements as” the “necessary and sufficient condition for a particular Christian community to be recognized as a church:”10
1. A community of people who are called by God to be committed disciples of Jesus Christ and to live out their discipleship in the world; 2. A community that regularly assembles for Christian worship and is then sent out into the world to engage in mission and service; 3. A community in which the Gospel is proclaimed in ways that are appropriate to the lives of its members; 4. A community in which the Scriptures are regularly preached and taught; 5. A community in which baptism is conferred in appropriate circumstances as a rite of initiation into the Church; 6. A community that celebrates the Lord’s Supper; 7. A community where pastoral responsibility and presidency at the Lord’s Supper is exercised by the appropriate authorized ministry; 8. A community that is united in others through: mutual commitment; spiritual communion; structures of governance, oversight and communion; and an authorized ministry in common.11
9 Archbishop's Council on Mission and Public Affairs, Mission-Shaped Church, x. 10 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 114. 11 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 114. 62
There may be other elements that could be considered desirable. These eight elements are what the Church of England and the Methodist Church use as the defining elements to constitute a church. Communities that fit these criteria can be created through fresh expressions of the gospel to the world.
The 2012 Report outlines three criteria for a ministry to be described as a fresh expression.
1) A fresh expression is a form of church for our changing culture established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church. 2) It will come into being through principles of listening, service, incarnational mission and making disciples. 3) It will have the potential to become a mature expression of church shaped by the gospel and the enduring marks of the church and for its cultural context.12
"A fresh expression is intentionally 'a form of church for our changing culture' because the Church is shaped by its host environment as well as by the Gospel."13 To qualify as a fresh expression, there must a church plant or a new congregation. Fresh expressions are not new ways to reach more people to join an existing congregation. It is not a renaming of an already established outreach with a new name. Fresh expressions are permanent, intentional congregations that meet the needs of those being served.
Fresh expressions are innovative, spiritually inspired means of bringing non-believers into the Church of Jesus Christ. The theology is incarnational; it is based in the presence
12 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 38. 13 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 39. 63
of Jesus Christ in a community of His disciples going about doing good and serving the world for the purpose of changing the world into a more holy place.
Each community is required to be in relationship with others.14 This requirement moves the church beyond itself into the world following the example of Jesus who went to the multitudes feeding, teaching, and praying in their midst and is responsive to
Mark 16:15 when Jesus says, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.” Jesus commissions his disciples to go into new places in new ways so that the world might be saved from eternal damnation or what Wesley called “the wrath to come.”
The 2012 Report identifies twelve kinds of fresh expressions:
Alternative worship communities Base ecclesial communities Café church Cell church Churches arising out of community initiatives Multiple and midweek congregations Network focused churches School-based and school-linked congregations and churches ‘Seeker’ church Traditional church plants Traditional forms of church inspiring new interest Youth congregations15
14 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 39. 15 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 28. 64
These fresh expressions are in accord with Jesus instructions for making disciples. In Matthew 28, Jesus commissions his followers to go into the world. God sends us out to serve and become entwined in the world so that we can change the world's DNA from worldly to sacred, from secular to holy, and from earthly to heavenly. "Fresh expressions are called to be communities, signs, and foretastes of the kingdom."16 "The challenges of developing deep discipleship, transforming mission and holy contextual worship are significant."17 Therefore fresh ways to address the current challenges are required.
3.2 Fresh Expressions Objectives and Principal Features
The objectives and principal features of fresh expressions address the challenges of developing deep discipleship, transforming mission and holy contextual worship.
"The Fresh Expression initiative has developed its own shorthand notation to sum up the principal features and objectives of fresh expressions."18 These include missional, contextual, formational, and ecclesial principal features.19 The purpose of fresh expressions is to strengthen and grow the church of Jesus Christ. It is a ministry not based in individualism but in community.20 It offers the incarnational Jesus in fresh ways that are not program based, but hands-on mission communities that allow for
16 Goodhew, Fresh!, 105. 17 Goodhew, Fresh!, 103. 18 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 40. 19 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 40. 20 Webber, The Younger Evangelicals, 46. 65
Holy Spirit empowered and entrepreneurial methods of reaching the masses for Jesus.
These fresh ways of accomplishing this challenge have the intent to serve the present age.
3.2.1 Missional Objectives
The mission of the United Methodist Church is to follow Jesus, make disciples, and transform the world. The General Rules of the movement and the United Methodist
Church today are: do no harm, do all the good you can in all the ways you can, and attend to the ordinances of God.
The intent of Wesley's revitalization movement and the Fresh Expression movement was not denominational growth or empowerment; it was a movement of mobilization of God's mission force.21 Wesley’s intent was social holiness – Christianity as a way of life. The purpose of social holiness is to participate in ushering in the reign of
God on earth by infiltrating the present culture in a global context.22 Christians around the globe are connected through baptism. All baptized Christians participate in the universal Church of Jesus Christ and are commissioned by Jesus to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
21 Gannon Sims. http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Gannon-Sims/896592737 , Gannon Sims Fresh Expressions, 6/5/2013, 3. 22 Archbishop's Council on Mission and Public Affairs, Mission-Shaped Church, xi. 66
and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."23
Fresh expressions are at the heart of the missional church intentionally reaching non-churched people. It answers the command of Jesus to serve neighbor as self. It multiplies ministries that continue in the narrative of God. The missional church is representative of the incarnational Christ amongst us, with us, and in us.
An example of a church arising out of community initiative and developing a multiple and midweek congregation is Midway United Methodist Church in
Kannapolis, NC. Midway birthed Narrow Gate Ministries through a three-year process beginning with three Disciple Bible Study group members who wanted to "run with
God" and reach the multitudes through service. This ministry was steeped in prayer and discernment. A space was donated to begin dinner and worship for those in need of a meal and community. Three people came the first week, twelve the second, 65 in the first year – God began to outrun God's disciples. The ministry moved to the church fellowship hall where it is presently bursting at the seams on Thursday nights when over 260 weekly worshipers gather in community to worship, fellowship, and network.
This is an adults-only ministry. Their children meet at different locations, the
Opportunity House, where they are fed, tutored, and worship together. Alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals, pedophiles, sexual predators, ex-convicts, parolees, homeless,
23 The HarperCollins, The NRSV, Matthew 28: 19. 67
destitute, hungry, and loving people make up this congregation. Their mission project is to collect plastic grocery bags to make sleeping mats to share with one another to keep from lying in the rainwater that gathers in the gullies and under bridges. They meet early in the day or on another weeknight to work together to make the mats. They read letters from those in prison who have been part of the community. They lift praises for
Jesus. They share prayer concerns.
I came into contact with Narrow Gate Ministry on April 26, 2012, when I, along with the Western North Carolina Conference Congregational Development Committee, gathered to serve the homeless and the needy who came to Narrow Gate in buses, in vans, and in cars. Because the community immediately around Midway did not offer a mission field, this community had been collected throughout town and country by an ecumenical effort of volunteers and various churches. We were there to discern funding for a full time pastor for Narrow Gate Ministries, an approximate $300,000 investment.
Narrow Gate was a church within a church. We were also there to discern funding a
$7,500 grant to establish an additional worship and ministry space in another location.
The Holy Spirit shows up on Thursday evenings at Narrow Gate Ministries when the gathered disciples of the town and country wait upon the Lord to bind them in community. This ministry is an organic, healthy, and vibrant institution. People are learning to help themselves and to aid one another. Unconditional love is rampant. The
68
Conference Congregational Development budget continues to financially and prayerfully support Narrow Gate.
During my visit, I observed that Narrow Gate Ministry consists of a hot meal, worship, prayer, and music provided by those who gather. Before the sermon, an open microphone is offered to anyone who feels led to speak or sing. Holy and sacred music is redefined as non-musically gifted people making a joyful noise in a high tolerance community where love surpasses perfection. Often the music is out of rhythm with made up or improvised lyrics from old hymns and modern contemporary music blended. The drummer, like the Holy Spirit, keeps the beat, which prompts and enhances the singer or speaker to keep moving onward. The theology is orthodox and the message is felt and heard. The preacher stands in the gathered community and preaches the truth. “God sent manna to the Israelites who were homeless. God sends manna to you. What is most important: what you want or what you need? Jesus is what you need.”
Narrow Gate is reflective of the teachings of John Wesley, the father of
Methodism, as he set out to renew the Anglican Church by serving the community. He set out to connect people to join hand and heart to serve. Inadvertently, he began the
Methodist Church. Midway UMC set out to join hands with those in need, to give them a hand up, and to serve the community of Jesus Christ. Unexpectedly, it has birthed two new churches within a three-year span. Narrow Gate and Narrow Gate’s children
69
anticipate becoming self-sustaining churches, missions, and ministries within a few years’ time. Every church has the possibility to be midway between Jesus and the world. We have the possibility to be the bridge that allows the world to come to Jesus.
Narrow Gate is a church that mirrors the image of the one Jesus served and continues to serve. It is considered to a fresh expression, as it is missional and anchored to an established church.
3.2.2 Contextual Objectives
Fresh Expressions are Holy Spirit inspired and intentional infiltrations of holiness into a culture. The narrative of God and the way of life that Jesus illustrates do not change. The presentation of the message adapts to meet the needs of the people to whom the message is delivered. The place into which God calls us shapes the presentation. Andrew Roberts in the fourth chapter of Fresh defines three places that shape how the word can be made flesh in a variety of places: a familiar place, a cross- cultural place, and a new place.24 The context is not the existing church, but the world outside of the church walls. The existing church is the catalyst for the Holy blood transfusion into secular culture through the infiltration of communities that transform neighborhoods into holyhoods. These infiltrations into the secular world are referred to by the Center for Missional Wisdom as New Day Communities.
24 Goodhew, Fresh!, 107. 70
Multiple "New Day" Communities have been established. Cherokee Shores is one of these. Larry and Allison Partridge found the location and established the community house in the neighborhood of Cherokee Shores with the intent to serve children at Kid’s
Klubhouse, an afterschool program twice weekly. In addition, the weekly “Celebrate
Recovery program serves up to thirty adults who have hurts, hang-ups and habits they would like to change."25 They are seeking transformation by living each day as a new day.
3.2.3 Formational and Discipling Objectives
Jesus called and set apart twelve disciples. He lived with them as they traveled together, ate together, served the world, fed the hungry, healed, and navigated through the storms of life together. Jesus was discipling these men for multiplying ministries.
When he ascended, he left them to spread the gospel. He taught them to seek God’s guidance through prayer. Prayer is the key to guidance in all situations – seeking God's direction.
God’s direction comes as Christians participate in the ordinances of the church as outlined by John Wesley: “The Public Worship of God, The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded, The Supper of the Lord, Family and private prayer, Searching the
25 Missional Wisdom. http://misionalwisdom.com/new-day/role-of-the-anchor-church/, 10/14/2013. 71
Scriptures, and Fasting and abstinence.”26 Fresh expressions are intentional ministries for the purpose of creating ways to form and shape disciples of Jesus Christ.
These outreach ministries are in direct correlation to John Wesley's class and band meetings. Wesley's classes were 10-12 people attending meetings by geography; the purpose was to be in mission together. Wesley's bands were voluntary and made up of 6-8 people grouped by age, sex, or marital status with the purpose of accountability and to nurture one another. Both Wesley’s bands and fresh expressions communities empowered by the Holy Spirit follow the model of Christ and his disciples with mission emphasis. These ministries are about empowering the laity to answer God's call to serve the world. These disciplining ministries create and form healthy ministries that survive over time and through storms of life and in community.
3.2.4 Ecclesial Objectives
The dominant term Luke uses for the Church is the word ekklesia, which occurs 23 times in Acts, more than in any other book of the New Testament. It is the normal Greek word for a civic or religious ‘assembly’, and can be used of a Greek city council (as in Acts 19.32-41) or, in Jewish terms, of the assembly of the people of God (as in Acts 7:38 and frequently in the Old Testament). For Luke, the ekklesia is most commonly a body of Christian believers in a particular place: the church in Jerusalem (Acts 5:11; 8.13; 11.22; 12.1, 5; 15.4 22), or the church in Antioch (Acts 11.26; 13.1; 14.27; 15.3). So, like St Paul, Luke speaks more readily of ‘the churches’ (e.g. Acts 15.41; 16.5; cf. 14.23), than of ‘the whole church’ as a global organization.27
26 The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church 2012, (Nashville, The United Methodist Publishing House, 2012), 78, Paragraph 104. 27 Report of an Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 64. 72
The fresh expressions movement spans Protestant and Catholic theological belief systems and way of living in community. It is a movement of worldwide Kingdom growth or universal church growth. It is the responsibility of the established church to multiply the kingdom by planting new faith communities using fresh expressions of church that address the present age. "The mission of the church is our grace-filled response to the Reign of God in the world announced by Jesus. God’s grace is active everywhere, at all times, carrying out this purpose as revealed in the Bible.”28
David Goodhew, in the book Fresh, offers three theological reasons why fresh expressions and pioneer ministry are central to the Christian faith:
1. They root us in the Apostolic Christianity of the New Testament, including the Christianity of Paul and the Corinthian church, to whom he wrote... "I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures" (I Cor. 15:3-4). 2. The Christian tradition, from the New Testament to the present, is about being fresh. 3. Because of who God is – the hallmark of God the Holy Trinity is that he is a God who pioneers fresh expressions of Church.29
Goodhew says "Fresh expressions are not scattered experiments; "they are emerging churches."30 Planting churches or new faith communities is answering the call of Jesus to serve the world by participating in the incarnate Lord.
28 The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church 2012, 91, Paragraph 120. 29 Goodhew, Fresh!, 2. 30 Goodhew, Fresh!, 104. 73
For example, Central United Methodist Church located in Asheville, NC is presently establishing a New Day Community in the Hot Creek Neighborhood. A house has been obtained and a leader appointed. The purpose and intent of the house continues to be in discernment.
3.3 Who is Opposed to Fresh Expressions?
Those who feel that the doctrinal standards of the Orthodox Church are challenged or blurred are the ones in opposition to the fresh expressions movement. For them, the traditional definition of “Church” is at stake in the arguments in favor of and in opposition to the acceptability of fresh expressions as new forms of church.
“Some theological commentators argue that Mission-Shaped Church and the consequential development of fresh expressions do not constitute a satisfactory strategy for Christian mission.”31 The oppositional criticisms include:
Promote a church-shaped mission rather than a mission-shaped Church; Stem from a limited view of the Missio Dei; Discourage active participation in the mission of the Church; Constitute a combined Evangelical-Liberal attack on territorial parishes; Neglect the role of the Church in salvation; Fail to give visible expression to the reconciling work of Christ; Amount to a rejection of Christian Tradition.32
“Some would argue that doctrinal standards formulated in previous generations should not be permitted to constrain current developments that are manifestly inspired
31 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 115. 32 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 116. 74
by the Holy Spirit.” 33 Times have changed and so have the methods of how we worship and participate in God’s reign. John Wesley called the Anglican Church to radical change, theological overhaul, so that believers could become a people of method and service based in God’s word. Fresh expressions call the church to a radical overhaul – a return to the model of Christianity as set forth by Christ and the apostles.
Jesus walked and talked like the people he came to serve. His ministry matched his time and place. According to the gospel lessons of Mark 1 and Matthew 4, it was the
Holy Spirit that drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tested before he began his ministry and set out to address the religious realm and politics of his day. His ministry was Holy
Spirit empowered and driven. His mission was to the world into which he was born, raised, and served. Fresh expressions are answers to the call of the Holy Spirit to serve this present age.
The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church 2012, paragraph 120, defines
“The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple- making occurs.”
3.4 Conclusion
Fresh Expressions revitalize the Methodist movement of bands and class meetings in America as a way to usher in the reign of God in the present age by creating
33 Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party, Fresh Expressions, 9. 75
worship, disciple, and accountability groups for the intent of social holiness and service to the world. In the incarnation Jesus becomes a fresh expression of God's love for humankind. God continues to create ways to reconcile man to God. Jesus calls us to use fresh expressions and Holy Spirit inspired emerging ideas to usher in the reign of God and grow God's kingdom for this present age, which is as diverse as every age before us.
Technology and the ability to instantly connect around the globe set us apart from other generations. Jesus infiltrated the culture into which he was born with the intent to make a difference and to save the souls of the world. Embracing every means to grow God's kingdom and establish worship, accountability, and service groups are ways to explore and participate in fresh expressions of God's grace for God's people.
76
4. Who is Elaine Heath?
Therefore my dear ones, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Cor. 15:58)1
In June 2013 The Reverend Doctor Elaine Heath was the guest Bible Study leader at the Western North Carolina Conference Annual Meeting of the United Methodist
Church at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. I had the privilege of attending her sessions and then given the blessing of interviewing her. Heath’s voice resonates in my ear as I remember her saying that on the eve of the Civil War when the Methodist holiness movement was impacting so many people, America was entering difficult and turbulent times politically, economically, and religiously. Heath bridged our times with the times of the nineteenth century and the uncertainty of present day homeland security. God calls prophets to speak to the church and world in times of turmoil for the purpose of calling for repentance leading to reconciliation with God. The Book of Genesis begins with God hovering over the “deep” and bringing forth ordered life from chaos. This is
God’s way to bring forth new life and new beginnings from chaos and uncertainty.
Heath teaches that historically small groups of faithful disciples have emerged and sustained the church in times of uncertainty when the church seems to be losing its way. God uses these groups to ignite and bring the light of Christ into the world’s
1Elaine A. Heath, Scott T. Kisker, Longing for Spring: A New Vision for Wesleyan Community, (Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 2010), 6. 1 Corinthians 15:58 as quoted in Longing for Spring. 77
darkness and the church’s uncertainty by keeping the call of Jesus in the Gospels at the forefront. In this way God brings new life and direction so that God's spirit within the church is rekindled over and over again. Heath reminds us that it is our turn today to experience this kind of renewal. She says that the church in the United States is a dark night of the soul, as classically understood in the contemplative tradition. That is, she says the church is undergoing a period of purgation that is causing it to let go of attachments and practices that are preventing it from living its vocation.2 Heath says this is a hopeful and God-initiated process.
Biographical information and personality of Elaine A. Heath, her call and beliefs including her theology of mysticism, holiness, and Methodism combined with identifying the historical bases for her theological movements, along with exploring missional or intentional communities based in new monasticism, and identifying her opposition help us to hear her voice and find our way in the dark night of our present age.
4.1 Biographical Information and Personality
Heath’s Bible Study that I attended in 2013 was centered in the theme To Serve the
Present Age. She reiterated her biographical information as outlined in her book, Longing for Spring: A New Vision for Wesleyan Community, written jointly with Scott T. Kisker. At
2 Elaine Heath, The Mystic Way of Evangelism: A Contemplative Vision For Christian Outreach, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 27. 78
the time of publication, Kisker was the James Cecil Logan Associate Professor of
Evangelism and Wesley Studies at Wesley Theological Seminary. The success of Heath’s missional communities is what prompted the Western North Carolina Conference to train leaders in establishing this model.
One of five children, her childhood was volatile and abusive. Her father had posttraumatic stress disorder, suffered with alcohol addictions, and was abusive. Her mother was the primary wage earner and, though she worked hard as a nurse, wages were very low at that time because nurses had not yet unionized. Consequently, the family was often in poverty. Her parents were not Christians and did not readily encourage her being part of church on any level. Although they eventually became
Christians, Heath reminisced during our Annual Meeting that when she was a child, her parents said Christians "were a lot of arrogant sons of bitches.”3 Heath's journey to
Christ began with lay people who included Heath, as a child, in their fellowship, particularly in their homes and families. They invited her to church and children's ministries, but it was especially their inviting her into their live that left an impact. When she was sixteen, Heath became a Christian. As an adult, Heath answered the pastoral call, allowed God to empower her by God’s Holy Spirit, and went forth into the world to serve.
3 Heath, To Serve the Present Age, June, 20, 2013, 1:30 pm class.
79
Heath is presently an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and member of the New Mexico Annual Conference. She is the McCreless Professor of
Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in Dallas,
Texas. Heath is also the co-founder of the Missional Wisdom Foundation, which is the non-profit that administrates networks of experimental missional and new monastic communities. Her areas of expertise include evangelism, theology, and Christian spirituality. "She considers her new monastic communities to be fresh expressions or missional churches in correlation with John Wesley and Phoebe Palmer's theology and rule of life."4 Class and band meetings are the historical foundation for leadership structures for Missional Wisdom communities Heath and her friends started.
Although she considers herself to be an introvert, Heath spoke about her calling to befriend her neighbors and create a potluck weekly meal where Christianity's original biblical model of hospitality could be followed. She was surprised by the number of neighbors who actually accepted her invitation and attended the first potluck and their excitement about being in community together on a weekly basis. Heath’s potluck was one of her first steps in accepting God’s call to develop missional communities.
4 Elaine A. Heath, To Serve the Present Age, (Western NC Annual Conference, Lake Junaluska, NC. June, 20, 2013), 1:30 pm class. 80
4.1.1 Heath's Call and Beliefs
It was an adult friendship with a woman named Betty that kindled the flame in
Heath’s soul to answer the call of God into the ordained ministry. Heath explained that she experienced her call through a vision in which she saw herself saying to a group of clergy and lay leaders, "The Church is not a business; it is a body. Why don't you come home to your first love?"5 When she shared this experience with Betty, along with other events that happened around that time, Betty affirmed her call and encouraged her. It was 1 Corinthians 15:58 that held Heath accountable to lay her life on the altar and allow
God to refine her for God’s purposes. For the last fifteen years of her life Betty modeled the “house church” approach to spreading the gospel. Through her friendship and theological teachings, Betty set Heath free to envision opened doors of possibility to participate in God’s kingdom.
(Heath said) Betty was more Wesleyan than most Methodists I have known, although she was never a member of the United Methodist Church. What I mean is that her theology was consistent with good Wesleyan theology with its focus on grace and holiness and the centrality of the love of God. Piety and social justice were the connection to Wesley.6
Betty emphasized teaching and preaching with authority and “not as the scribes and Pharisees.”7 The authority comes from the Holy Spirit and a life surrendered to
God’s mission in the world. Betty did not attempt to control the outcome or manage the
5 Heath, To Serve the Present Age, June, 20, 2013, 1:30 pm class. 6 Heath, Longing for Spring, 4. 7 Heath, Longing for Spring, 5. 81
house churches that she helped others to launch.8 She allowed for the work of the Holy
Spirit to mold and shape the Kingdom. Heath’s early missional theology was shaped by
Betty’s Christian mysticism and her commitment to discern the direction of the power of the Holy Spirit.
4.1.2 Mysticism, Holiness, and Methodism
According to William J. Abraham, the Albert Cook Outler Professor of Wesley
Studies at Southern Methodist University, Heath’s interpretation of Phoebe Palmer’s altar theology is what connects ascetic theology to the bosom of Methodism and ties it to
Heath’s modern day new monastic and missional communities.9 The communities are based in a way of life that is committed to altar theology. When a person commits to be a
Christian, they are committing to laying their whole life upon the altar of God. Their life is no longer their own. For Heath, this is the three-fold cord that binds Wesley, Palmer, and Heath’s theoretical and practical work together. Abraham write, “More broadly,
Professor Heath alters the landscape of scholarship on the Holiness movement as well as more general nineteenth century Methodist theology, and ascetic theology… we need to look again at the relationship between mysticism, Holiness, and Methodism.”10
8 Heath, Longing for Spring, 5. 9 Heath, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer, (Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2009), Foreword ix by William J. Abraham. 10 Heath, Naked Faith, Foreword ix. 82
4.1.2.1 Mysticism
Heath reintroduces Phoebe Palmer as the female theologian of the nineteenth century who revitalized mainline Methodism. Palmer relied on the Holy Spirit to empower her ministry, preaching, and teachings for the people of her present age. Her altar theology was inherently a form of Christian mysticism, as Heath details in her book on Palmer’s life and theology, Naked Faith.
Palmer reintroduced spiritual renewal giving voice to apophatic mysticism – naked faith in the naked word of God – that had been missing from the Methodist theological tradition. Her mysticism focused on surrender to God and cooperation with
God’s missional purposes in the world rather than on ecstatic experiences. “Palmer was a lay person. Largely through her sanctification theology the Methodist holiness movement was born."11
Heath learned from Betty that it is essential to fully give one’s life to God. Heath sees in Palmer’s theology a similar theme, laying ones life on the altar of Christ. For
Heath, learning from the teachings and example of many of the great Christian mystics is the way for the church to move through its dark night of the soul and into a new day of vitality. Therefore, Heath reintroduces Christian mysticism and the contemplative tradition as key elements in participating in the Kingdom of God on earth in our present age.
11 Heath, To Serve the Present Age, June 22, 2013. 83
4.1.2.2 Holiness
Like Palmer, Heath asserts that holiness was the intent of Wesley's theology. He sought assurance that he was saved from the wrath to come. “John Wesley was accused of enthusiasm because of his insistence upon the vital role of experience in
Christianity.”12 “Enthusiasts” in early American Methodism were discredited due to their claims to revelatory religious experience.13 These moments of contact and transformation for Wesley were moments of “going on to perfection” in this lifetime.
These moments only came when one was gloriously filled with the love of God and neighbor and was considered to be perfect union with God – just a glimpse of the
Heavenly Kingdom.
Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Palmer crossed social, gender, and traditionally established church boundaries. Being so filled with the power of the Holy
Spirit that one must witness is fully living in altar theology. Mysticism in this context, for Palmer, was an experience of radical trust in the word of God with direct, transformative relationship between a person and God that is not dependent upon shifting emotional experiences. For Heath, Palmer’s wisdom is much needed in today’s
United Methodist theology and practice. Without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the church cannot find its way through the dark night. The Holy Spirit empowers the church to shine brightly so that the world can find its way to God and be transformed.
12 Heath, Naked Faith, I footnote 2. 13 Heath, Naked Faith, I footnote 2. 84
4.1.2.3 Methodism
For Wesley and Palmer, discipleship through accountability groups was the key to equipping Christians and ushering in the reign of God. Heath embraces these biblically based discipling methods. She refers to The United Methodist Book of Discipline and the willingness of boards of ordained ministry and bishops to cooperate with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as the sources to modify the current focus of the church to include new monastic and missional faith communities and other initiatives that inspire fresh ways of being the church to and for the people.14 She calls for young Phoebe
Palmer and John Wesley theologian/activists to rise up and lead the new monastic missional movement of fresh expressions.15
On day three of To Serve the Present Age, Heath spoke of Palmer's empowerment by the Holy Spirit, her Biblical knowledge, and strong calling to participate in at home meetings; she established her "Tuesday meeting for the promotion of holiness." Palmer's meetings established a "pack of friends" that held one another accountable to discipleship and missional emphasis as a way of life. Heath said, "The Church is not a business; it is a body. Why don't you come home to your first love?"16 For Heath the church needs to cultivate missional or intentional communities seeking to be the body of
Christ on earth the incarnational Jesus. Such small groups were the seeds of original
14 Heath, Longing for Spring, 43. 15 Heath, Longing for Spring, 43. 16 Heath, To Serve the Present Age, June 20, 2013. 85
Methodism. Historically, when these kinds of seeds are scattered and sown, the Church grows and spreads.
4.2 How does Heath's Theology Connect Historically?
This section connects church history to the present age then establishes a connection between historic “old” monasticism and Heath’s missional and new monastic communities. For Heath, learning from the past is what makes us better in the future. As Christians, we let go of the worst and hold to the best and try to make it even better.
In Longing for Spring, Kisker quotes a letter from Diogenes, written around AD
200, to a Roman official defining who Christians were and how they lived.
Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humankind either in locality or in speech or in customs. For they dwell not somewhere in cities of their own, neither do they use some different language, nor practice and extraordinary kind of life…While they dwell in cities of Greeks and barbarians…and follow the native custom in dress and food and the other arrangements of life, yet the constitution of their own citizenship, which they set forth, is marvelous, and confessedly contradicts expectation. They dwell in their own countries, but only as sojourners…Every foreign country is a fatherland to them, and every fatherland is foreign…They find themselves in the flesh and yet they live not after the flesh. Their existence is on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, and they surpass the laws in their own lives…War is waged against them by the Greeks, and yet those who hate them cannot tell the reason for their hostility. In a word, what the soul is in the body, the Christians are in the world…(they) are kept in the world as in a prison house, and yet they themselves hold the world together.17
17 Heath, Longing for Spring, 15. Originally Bosch, Transforming Mission, 211. 86
Christianity crossed cultural, religious and social boundaries and spread to every part of the empire because discipleship in God’s Kingdom was the emphasis.18 Practice makes perfect; perfection in God is found in perfect love for God and neighbor. House churches were the key to discipleship and spreading the gospel into the world. In house churches, the leaders were chosen by lot, just like Matthias in Acts chapter two. Once the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them, they worshipped in the temple, ate together at home, praised God, shared good will with all people, and day-by-day God added to their numbers.19 This sacred calling to worship and life together is to clergy and laity.
The first monks were called lay people, and monasticism has always been a lay movement. “Monasticism began with individual lay Christians retreating from society to deserted places to pursue holiness.”20
St. Benedict, who was a layperson, established a “Rule” of monasticism that guided Christian experiments for generations of lay people. He eventually left Rome and “traveled to a village about forty miles from Rome and joined a group of like- minded seekers living in community there.”21 Benedict began a pattern of renewal of the church as a place for making disciples.22
18 Heath, Longing for Spring, 16. 19 HarperCollins, NRSV, Acts 2:43-47. 20 Heath, Longing for Spring, 17. 21 Heath, Longing for Spring, 17. 22 Heath, Longing for Spring, 23. 87
As depicted by the gospels, especially Luke chapter 5, Jesus connected the house church to the synagogue and the synagogue to the world. He took his disciples to the synagogue where he taught and worshiped; he went home with Peter where he taught and healed. At Peter’s house, the neighbors brought a paralyzed man on a stretcher, dug a hole in the roof, and lowered him down so that Jesus would see the sick man and heal him. The man was healed through the faith of his friends, so the man walked out of the house a renewed person. He had a story to tell to the nations. Throughout the gospels, public worship and house gatherings are modeled by Jesus. Church is not about the building where God’s people gather.
Wesley relied on the model of Jesus when he set out to revitalize the Anglican
Church through small group class and band meetings. His purpose was to make disciples who would usher in the reign of God and change the world by spreading scriptural holiness throughout the land. Early Methodism was in many ways a lay monastic movement, which was adapted from both the Anglican religious societies and the Moravians.23
Kisker emphasizes that, by the 1840’s, Methodism in America was being shaped by the European State Church tradition.24 The Church of England had shifted its mission from developing a Godly way of life to weekly worship. The initial purpose of
23 Heath, Longing for Spring, 32. 24 Heath, Longing for Spring, 35. 88
Wesley's class and band meetings was to develop relationships of accountability and discipleship within the Anglican Church in England. Wesley’s methods crossed the seas and became established in America as the Methodist Episcopal Church.
As America entered the Civil War, the spiritual focus became worship and not discipleship. No one was asking, "How is it with your soul?" or in modern day English,
"How is your life with God?"25 "Gradually the mainstream of the Methodist Episcopal
Church began to see itself as part of the American religious establishment."26 Methodists had forgotten how to retreat to accountability and renewal groups for the purpose of representing an incarnational God so that they could be sent into the world like the
Father sent Christ into humanity.
"By 1865 the mission of the Methodists was a Christianized nation-state, just like in Europe."27 The world of American industrialization and capitalism was shaping the
Methodist movement into one of institutional church and moving away from small groups of discipleship. In 1854, the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and in 1856, the Methodist Episcopal Church had omitted the article on bands.
Accountability as Methodist Christians was waning.
In 1838 for the first time in the Methodist Church, a minister was appointed to one congregation. Prior to this, churches were served by a circuit rider who had
25 Heath, Longing for Spring, 34. 26 Heath, Longing for Spring, 34. 27 Heath, Longing for Spring, 35. 89
authority to preach, baptize, consecrate communion, and discipline the community. As circuit rider pastorates began to wane, clergy were no longer distanced from the congregation. Once pastors became members of the community, their authority was partially diminished because they had to live within the community of those whom they disciplined. Kisker states that clerical distance from the community is needed for discipline to truly be enforced.28 The consistent presence of the clergy also initiated the end of the laity led class meeting, which had been the fundamental structure of
Methodist spirituality.
4.3 Missional or ntentional o unities New Monastic Communities
What sets Heath apart from most twenty-first century Methodists is her renewal of the monastic movement through new monastic and missional communities. Heath’s communities invite the universal church to participate in following Jesus’ model for spreading the gospel. The missional communities in the Missional Wisdom Foundation network are called New Day, and the new monastic residential communities are the
Epworth Project. She reminds us that Jesus means for the church to be missional or sent out. In Matthew 28, Jesus commissions Christians to engage in God's mission in the world. Heath’s To Serve the Present Age called Christians to follow Jesus’ model for
28 Heath, Longing for Spring, 36. 90
making disciples and revert to the Wesleyan movement that originally did spread holiness throughout the land.
Scripture is the authority and model for making disciples. She began by stating
"Jesus proves he has authority over how to interpret scripture."29 The power for interpretation comes through the Holy Spirit. Jesus is anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism and then driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to defend himself against
Satan through the interpretation of the Word of God.30 Heath said that Jesus is the embodiment of Isaiah 61 as it says, "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the
Lord has anointed me."31
Luke's gospel illumines the authority of Christ living the text of Isaiah 61, beginning especially in chapter 4 and 5. She referenced Luke 5:17-26 where Jesus heals the man and calls him to stand and walk, reminding us that in Mark’s gospel this event happened in the home where Jesus lived. She reminds us that the healed man is sent out into the world. Christians sent into the world are sent with the purpose to follow Jesus and make disciples with the intent to change the world to a more holy place participating in the reign of God or one could say, the transformation of the world.
The light represents the presence of Christ, an incarnational presence Emanuel.
Jesus came as the light of the world and calls Christians to be the light sent into the
29 Heath, To Serve the Present Age, June 20, 2013. 30 Heath, To Serve the Present Age, Isaiah 61, June 20, 2013. 31 HarperCollins, NRSV, Isaiah 61:1a. 91
world. Because Christ is in us, we represent the light of Christ to this generation.
Christians are called to be conduits of Jesus' light, love, and grace. For Heath, the most effective way to be conduits of Jesus is through missional or intentional communities.
4.3.1 Missional Wisdom Foundation and Intentional Communities
Heath’s calling to be intentional about connecting neighbors through missional communities inspired her to participate in developing the Missional Wisdom
Foundation. The Foundation trains missional leaders drawing from its network of New
Day and Epworth communities as learning labs, along with traditional research. The web page for the Missional Wisdom Foundation defines intentional communities.
New monastic communities are small groups of individuals who choose to live together under a rule of life in order to bring the good news to their neighborhood. Our communities' rule of life is based on United Methodist membership vows. Participants live, pray, eat and serve together, developing life skills and spiritual depth to propel them into a life of holistic evangelism -- loving God and loving others. Our communities are each informally affiliated with a United Methodist Church, which cooperates with the foundation to provide spiritual guidance and connection. Our communities include seminary students, persons working in non-profits to address root causes of poverty, and others, embracing every form of diversity.32
These new monastic communities are grounded in the old monastic model of being in service to the world through practices of prayer, hospitality, and justice. She connects the new monastic model to John Wesley's theology of "the world is my parish."
Leaders of the Epworth Project and New Day communities are people who are called to
32 Missional Wisdom. http://missionalwisdom.com/epworth/houses/cochran-house / The Epworth Project: Cochran House 11/20/2013. 92
be missional, share leadership, and be intentional about sharing the good news of Jesus
Christ through their lifestyle and who are willing to live in God's pace and timing.33
Living in community with and being part of the neighborhood where one is sent to serve is the embodiment of being the body of Christ on earth. Jesus lived with those whom he came to serve. The purpose of the missional and new monastic communities is to infiltrate culture and cross social, racial, and gender boundaries with the intent to change the world and eliminate what Heath calls the three-fold sins of sexism, racism, and classism.
4.3.2 New Day Communities
The People of New Day is an example of what Heath calls missional micro- churches located in and around Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas.
New Day began in 2007 as a series of conversations between Elaine Heath and some of her students who longed to create a different kind of faith community that drew from the best wisdom of the new monasticism, the missional church movement, and the emerging church conversation. They wanted this new tradition to be deeply rooted in their own tradition, Methodism, which in many ways began as a lay monastic movement in the eighteenth century. Yet they wanted it to be a lay community where people from any tradition or no tradition might find a spiritual house.34
The communities include people from every walk of life and are both urban and rural. A group of 5-7 bi-vocational people forms a lead team for each community. Most of the leaders are lay people who do not earn a living by leading New Day. The lead
33 Heath, To Serve the Present Age, June 21, 2013. 34 Missional Wisdom. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/history-and-mission/, 11/20/2013. 93
team meets twice a month for a covenant group in which they practice mutual accountability to their Rules of Life. “Lead team members rotate leadership of worship and share equally in decision making about the community.”35 New Day worship gatherings, meals, and missional outreach activities are invitational and inclusive,
“including persons with no religious faith, persons from other religions, people who are marginalized for any reason, skeptics, seekers, and learners."36
The new monastic community is different than the old monastery and convent model. Some of the new monastic homes are gender based. Bonhoeffer is a men’s house.
Palmer is a women’s house. Some, like Adrian House include both married and single people. Communities are open to gay and lesbian individuals. The theology is not exclusive, but is inclusive of diversity.
The Missional Wisdom web site says, “We believe that ‘love your neighbor’ means every neighbor God sends.”37 Everyone who gathers at New Day communities is invited to share in the community meal, which they consider sacramental and a means of grace. The meal is part of the worship gathering. The meetings are conducted in the languages and cultures of those present. The sermons are communal and “guided by a member of the lead team who has prepared exegetically and prayerfully for a robust
35 Missional Wisdom. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/history-and-mission/, 11/20/2013. 36 Missional Wisdom. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/history-and-mission/, 11/20/2013. 37 Missional Wisdom. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/history-and-mission/, 11/20/2013. 94
experience of searching the scripture in community.”38 If someone with sacramental authority is present, then Holy Communion is served.
Heath sites God’s calling of people to be gathered, blessed, and sent out to bless the world throughout the biblical narrative. She links missional communities such a
New Day to the biblical narrative, siting especially the Exodus story and Pentecost, emphasizing the importance of the Holy Spirit. The church’s empowerment comes from the Holy Spirit as on the day of Pentecost. Central to their ethos of being missional and monastic, New Day and Epworth Project communities follow a Rule of Life based in scripture, tradition, experience, and reason, and they are connected to what Heath calls an “Anchor Church.”
4.3.3 Anchor Churches
The anchor church grounds the network of missional communities, but other models are possible, too.
One of our dreams is to see communities like New Day formed as free-standing new church starts in all sorts of contexts. In that model we imagine the role of the fulltime pastor being one in which she or he equips and guides the lead teams, helps to multiply the communities, helps each community determine its missional outreach and location and coordinates missional connections with agencies and social service providers in the area of the New Day communities. On a quarterly basis the various communities would come together for a big worship celebration and teaching time. This fulltime pastor would live in the same economic strata as the people served in the communities she or he leads.39
38 Missional Wisdom. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/history-and-mission/, 11/20/2013. 39 Missional Wisdom. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/role-of-the-anchor-church/, 10/14/2013. 95
In this present age, New Day communities are satellite congregations anchored in United Methodist churches. The lead teams do not receive compensation for their work with New Day. The anchor church does not financially support New Day, as each
New Day community funds itself.
The relationship between New Day and the anchor church can in a best case scenario include: pastors and lead teams follow the same rule of life, pastors and lead teams meeting for covenant group twice a month, and “the anchor church handles financial administration, but New Day is self funding through its offerings and through grants, etc, that it may secure for community development work.”40 People from the anchor church are included in New Day outreach events, classes, etc.; “New Day influences congregational members toward following a similar way of life in their own neighborhoods through a rule of life, neighborhood hospitality, and engagement in justice issues.”41 Heath feels that missional and new monastic communities anchored to established churches direct the anchored church’s focus outward and help to shift the anchor church away from self-centeredness.42
Missional means to be sent out. “Being sent means, among other things, forming loving relationships with our neighbors. Our missions arise from the community as the
40 Missional Wisdom. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/role-of-the-anchor-church/, 10/14/2013. 41 Missional Wisdom. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/role-of-the-anchor-church/, 10/14/2013. 42 Heath, Interview with Suzanne Michael, June 20, 2013. 96
Holy Spirit leads.”43 Neighborhood Bible studies and hospitality nights in diverse neighborhoods where friendships are cultivated, building community, and sharing
Christ as a way of life allows for the Holy Spirit to work among the gathered people.
Reaching out in presence, action, and word to neighbors who suffer is reflective of the incarnational Christ. Committing to gender, racial and ethnic equality in our community and in the world is intentional missional presence.44 Sojourning together is the mark of the Christian community for New Day. Each community bound to an anchor church is encouraged to dwell in a rule of life.
4.3.4 Rule of Life
The Missional Wisdom web site identifies people of New Day communities as monastically oriented following John Wesley’s Rule of Life. Participating in “Rule of
Life” is not required by everyone other than the lead team, but is strongly encouraged because participation brings forth transformation. Heath describes a rule of life as a means of establishing “holy habits.”45 The Rule “assists in answering the call to make disciples of Jesus Christ not only in transforming our lives but in transforming the world.”46 The monastic way of hospitality encourages acceptance of diversity. The New
Day diversity is expressed in three ways: embracing theologically rich conversation in
43 Missional Wisdom. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/overview/ , 10/14/2013. 44 Missional Wisdom. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/overview/, 10/14/2013. 45 Heath, Elaine. The Digest - Dr. Elaine Heath Extended Interview 2013 Western North Carolina Conference. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZROX2VTr64, June 2013. 46 Missional Wisdom. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/overview/, 10/14/2013. 97
practices of worship and dialogue, aiming not for identical opinions but diverse perspectives of God and life, commitment to authentic community, and encouraging all to embrace who they are, and valuing the unique voices within community.
Inclusiveness and encouragement of multi-generation and multi-racial facets of community life allows for missional wisdom to prevail.
The Missional Wisdom Rule of Life for all New Day or missional community houses is divided into five sections titled, "prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness."
These five commitments are included in the membership vows of the United Methodist
Church as stated in the United Methodist Hymnal in the service of baptism. The
Missional Wisdom Foundation’s web page outlines these vows under the tab entitled
“The People of New Day.” Each of the five practices includes several specific practices.
Prayers include: praying daily, using a variety of forms of prayer such as reflective readings of Scripture or other spiritual texts, confession, the prayer of examen, intercession, journaling, and contemplation, and fasting from food either a full or partial fast at least once a week. Presence includes: practicing a contemplative stance in order to be present to God, the world, and ourselves, being hospitable to our neighbors in our families, neighborhoods, and workplaces, and being hospitable to our faith community through participation in worship, fellowship, and mission. Offering our gifts includes: honoring and caring for the gift of the earth and its resources, practicing ecologically responsible living, striving for simple over excessive consumption,
98
practicing generosity in sharing our material resources, including money, within and beyond the community, using our spiritual gifts, talents and abilities to serve God within and beyond our own community. Serving God includes: serving God and neighbor out of gratitude for the love of God, practicing mutual accountability with a covenant group within the community, participating and practicing a regular Sabbath as a means of renewal so that we are empowered to serve God and neighbor. Witnessing includes: practicing racial and gender reconciliation, resisting evil and injustice, pursuing peace with justice, and sharing the redeeming, healing, creative love of God in word, deed and presences as an invitation to others to experience the transforming love of God.
The Rule of Life embraces the monastic way of life to be intentional about spiritual growth, worship, and service to the world that Jesus came to save.
4.4 Who is the Opposition to Intentional Communities?
During my interview with Dr. Heath in the summer of 2013, I asked her about opposition to her ministries and New Day communities. She said that the only opposition that she had encountered was more of bafflement or confusion than active opposition. In a later conversation, she noted that some judicatory leaders are dismissive toward the concept of missional communities, saying they are not sustainable. What they mean by that, however, is that missional communities do not fund the financial coffers of the institutional church at large, so some authorities see them as insignificant.
99
Heath’s communities are based in Wesley and consistent with Bonhoeffer's theology of new monasticism and social holiness.
Heath suggested that anyone who is opposed to postmodern expressions of church or against the emerging church may develop opposition to new monasticism and missional communities, in the same way the Methodist Church came to oppose the
Holiness Christians in the nineteenth century. In addition, those who desire to gatekeep traditions and desire bureaucracy and organizational control will likely become part of the opposition to this movement. Heath reiterates that Jesus was opposed to bureaucracy used by the Pharisees and Sadducees to control religion and holiness to maintain current structures of power in their time. She has not been outright rejected by the United Methodist Church for her new monastic communities or theological stance thus far.
The economic downfall and implosion of institutional structures in conjunction with the United Methodist Church restructuring districts and conferences for the purpose of downsizing brought about openness to change.47 Desperation for survival increases a willingness to explore options. During times of desperation, we revert to our grass roots and resort to proven teachings and beliefs.
The Methodist Church in America is shrinking. Bishops and judicatory leaders are saying, "What do we need to do differently? What is God calling us to do now? This
47 Heath, Interview Suzanne Michael, June 21, 2013. 100
is not working! How do we hold onto the best from the old and make it better?"48 The dark night of the church challenges us to learn from those who have been through previous dark nights of the church – the great Christian mystics – and to seek the light of
Christ and move into it so that we can become it for others. For Heath, the key to church growth is a return to the basic teachings of apostolic leadership as lived and taught by
Jesus Christ. Being a Christian is living a way of life that invites others to the way of holiness.
4.5 Conclusion
Elaine Heath challenges the body of Christ on earth to "Live within your neighborhood. Go out. Go deep. Go together."49 Infiltration into culture is the model of
God to serve and change God's creation to its original holiness. Christians infiltrate culture through Holy Spirit empowerment, scriptural teachings, call, and social holiness in community.
Heath stood before over a thousand people who had gathered for her To Serve the
Present Age Bible study. She began by asking us to sing an invocation with the words
“Come Holy Spirit; Come Holy Spirit; maranâ thâ; Come Lord come.”50 She introduced
Phoebe Palmer’s theology of Holy Spirit empowerment in the process of transforming
48 Heath, Interview Suzanne Michael, June 21, 2013. 49 Heath, To Serve the Present Age, June 20, 2013. 50 Heath, To Serve the Present Age, June 2013. Song sung and led by Elaine A. Heath as an invocation to the Holy Spirit. 101
the world into God’s Kingdom on earth. It takes “holy boldness” and a “tongue of fire” to infiltrate the darkness of our lives and usher in the light of Jesus. Holy boldness and a tongue of fire come when God sends the wind and the fire. Heath spoke to an Annual
Conference that sat through the use of profanity to describe Christians and the message that gays and lesbians should be invited to commune and live with us. This boldness from which she spoke came from the Holy Spirit within her and is ever present in the gathered body of Christ on earth.
John Wesley understood the necessity of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s blessed assurance of salvation. He lived his life empowered by the Spirit of God and boldly instigated a more holy way of life for Christians during his present age. Phoebe Palmer utilized Wesley’s teachings to grow the church through service to the world. Heath boldly connects the days of Palmer with our present age.
Heath’s road map out of the present “Dark Night of the Soul” of the United
Methodist Church is to search the scriptures and Christian history for models. We should go back to the basics and disciple new converts, exercise accountability within the community, and serve the world at our doorstep. Intentional communities follow the model of Acts 2 including house churches, community meals, sharing prayer concerns, and giving as any has need. The basis taught in the scriptures is what we have deemed fresh expressions. Fresh expressions are simply new ways to teach the theology and lifestyle of Christ.
102
For Heath, the anchor church concept is a key to help the house church influence the inherited church and its mission to the world. The anchor church ties the house churches into one Body of Christ. Each house church has its own mission and functions as the human body has various functions but requires all parts to work at full capacity and remain healthy.
God’s call into the Christian life and leadership comes to laity and clergy. Heath teaches that laity should have authority over house churches, missional communities, and new monastic communities. She reiterates that clergy can still retain sacramental authority to baptize and consecrate communion elements. The authority of clergy is not diminished in her model. The role of laity is elevated to leadership, discipleship, and disciple making.
In the book of Matthew chapter 28, before Jesus ascended into heaven, he issued a directive to teach, baptize, and transform the world. The transformation for Heath is social holiness. Social holiness is a way of life that allows Christ followers to act as Christ did and sacrifice for love of neighbor. Social holiness is God’s love bringing light into the injustice of the world so that the world maybe healed. When we choose to live with holy boldness, seek scriptural direction, discern God’s call, and invite the world to participate in social holiness, God’s reign comes in God’s time.
Heath calls the United Methodist Church and all Christians to return to the basics, to come home where our souls can be at one with God. Heath quotes an African
103
Proverb, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."51 She reminds Christians to work together as the body of Christ and move in rhythm to God's own heartbeat. She challenges us to be intentional about participating in the kingdom of
God on earth and celebrating in the reign of God through worship, discipleship, and service in community and neighborhoods.
51 Heath, To Serve the Present Age, June 21, 2013. 104
Part III 5. Implications of New Measures and Fresh Expressions
My research findings identify historical threads and practices that have been effective in inviting the light of God to shine brightly for the purpose of participating in
God's kingdom. This chapter first discloses and then analyzes similarities and differences between new measures and fresh expressions that have been proven effective throughout time and are still relevant. In conclusion, I identify the practices that worked for the nineteenth century and bridged to the twenty-first century establishing a road map for how the Church can lead in service to the world for the purpose of representing the incarnational Christ and ushering in the reign of God through practical divinity to serve our present age.
5.1 Similarities and Differences
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.1
1 HarperCollins, NRSV, Eccl 3: 1-8. 105
Comparing and contrasting new measures with fresh expressions and analyzing the findings with the focus remaining on Finney, Palmer, and the Fresh Expressions movement including Elaine Heath's missional communities reveals a list of similarities and differences. These findings give us practical divinity practices that aid our generation in ushering in the new millennium. I have described and annotated the following concepts on these evangelical techniques in the previous chapters of this dissertation.
5.1.1 What are the similarities between New Measures and Fresh Expressions?
Clergy Itinerant Evangelist = accountability of laity (Finney, Palmer, Heath) How to know God and be transformed: scripture, reason, tradition, experience Grace and holiness for all people Overcome sexism, racism, classism Usher in social holiness = morality Practices move Christians holiness, piety, discipleship Conversion as key to holiness Priesthood of all believers not institutional Holy Spirit driven and innovative Secular = sin; Reign of God = holiness Spiritual Assurance of salvation not required (practice makes perfect) Membership requiring prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness (Rule of Life) Holiness = Grace (growing in sanctification working towards entire sanctification) Self-sacrifice for others is way of life (Palmer's Altar Theology) Call of clergy and laity to serve Incarnational Christ present now and in eternity Reach unchurched people to become disciples Promotes one, holy, catholic, apostolic, church Whatever works to bring in and maintain converts Private and Public life match 106
5.1.2 What are the differences between New Measures and Fresh Expressions?
New Measures were clergy driven; Fresh Expressions are laity driven. New Measures were to Christianize America to influence legislation to institute Christianization. Finney Revival Preaching is somewhat in opposition to Heath’s and Palmer’s house churches or new monasticism as the primary tool for conversion. New Measures affirm clergy as itinerant evangelists as the means to hold laity accountable; Fresh Expressions emphasizes the importance of accountability of laity to answer God’s call to service. New Measures required church membership; Fresh Expressions promote but do not require church attendance. Finney sought moral or social holiness as a means for democratic government or reign; Heath's intentional communities are to be set apart to serve God, not government. New Measures conform to the call of the world; Fresh Expressions call for being set apart from the world. Finney's New Measures did not intentionally promote monastic communities or house churches; neo-monastic communities, or intentional communities, are a major theme of Fresh Expressions. New Measures addresses the salvation of the individual; Fresh Expressions addresses cultural needs. New Measures' purpose was to grow the established church; Fresh Expressions' purpose is to plant a new church in an old way. New Measures intentionally sought new converts to save the world in a given time frame and usher in the New Millennium; Fresh Expressions objectives include missional, contextual, formational, and ecclesial principals as a means of living in the current Reign of God and participating in ushering in the future Kingdom. New Measures exploited preaching as the key to evangelization; Fresh Expressions’ intentional communities or monastic houses are the means to disciple the world. New Measures' intellectual or emotional commitment to Jesus is individual; Fresh Expression's monastic communities require attachment to Anchor churches. New Measures did not emphasize time away from the world for spiritual renewal; the new monastic communities are anchored to established churches for emphasis on spiritual renewal and discipleship.
107
New Measures focused on America as God's chosen people; Fresh Expressions sees the universal church as the body, the incarnate Christ.
5.1.3 Analysis of Similarities and Differences
New Measures and Fresh Expressions share many of the same concepts, but they also differ in various ways. The church tends to adjust its response to the world by the needs of the culture of the day. Finney served God during the days after the
Revolutionary War and before the Civil War in America. People in America were attempting to define themselves and their culture. Self-examination and practices for how to live in this new society and place were being established. For Finney, merging
Christianity with the governmental system was the way to evangelize America.
However, his measures may have worked towards the disestablishment of religion.
During the nineteenth century, it appears that America was moving under what presently Peter Berger calls a "Sacred Canopy." Under the canopy, once the government takes responsibility for our souls, the church is no longer set apart for its own work of salvation and service to the world. When a culture endorses freedom of religion and all belief systems are accepted, then the Christian church can establish a clear-cut theology of its own identity and whom it must serve.
Our country was set up under a democratic government and freedom of choice of religion; however, this freedom was given to only white men. Today, Christians in
America are out from under the sacred canopy and freedom prevails for all peoples.
108
Christians must retreat to monasticism, small group accountability groups, and bands in order to prepare and achieve the mission as set forth by Christ to baptize, disciple, and teach so that Jesus is with us always to ends of the earth (Matt 28).
God calls the church to be the universal body of Christ on earth. America is not the new Israel. Christians around the world participate in the reign of God. The church must be set apart as was originally intended by God to function as the one and holy
Bride of Christ. Christians are in the world yet not of it. Christians are called, taught through scripture, and sent out by the Holy Spirit where temptations, trials, and tribulations, offer exceptional opportunities to thrive, grow, and return to community for soul feasting, nourishment, and replenishment.
Heath reminds us to simply "Do what works."2 Wesley, Finney, Palmer, and
Heath indirectly remind us to abide in scripture as authority, reason, tradition and experience as measures for every Christian strategy. The emphasis is on the empowerment and discernment of the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us to gather and wait upon the Holy Spirit, then act in proclamation, then go into the world and serve (Acts 1).
Without God's Holy Spirit empowering us, we are nothing.
Although New Measures and fresh expressions are both similar and diverse, they are based in one’s vocational calling as laity and clergy, scripturally founded, and are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
2 Heath, To Serve the Present Age, June 20, 2013. 109
5.2 Historical Bridge Leading to Practical Wisdom to Serve the Present Age
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which is said, "See, this is new"? It has already been, in the ages before us. (Smith, 98) Isaiah 42:9 Eccl 1:9-10)
America’s Christian leadership can learn how to serve the present age by examining our past with the intent to gain practical wisdom for appropriation in our contemporary context. A major calling for the Christian Church in America to return to its grassroots came from England on two occasions: one from the past with Wesley's class and band meetings for the intention of making the Anglican Church stronger and more effective, and presently, fresh expressions calling the church to return to house churches and accountability groups that originated in Wesley’s methods of holiness.
In nineteenth century America, Finney’s New Measures and Palmer’s altar sanctification expounded on Wesley’s revival methods calling the American Church to radical change and theological overhaul, so that believers could become a people of method and service based in God’s word. In the present age, fresh expressions and
Elaine Heath call the church to a radical overhaul – a return to the model of Christianity as set forth by Christ and the apostles. This incarnational model that is bridged to the past is Holy Spirit empowered, scripturally rooted, and affirms the call of laity and
110
clergy, for the purpose of participating in social holiness that participates in the reign of
God in this present age.
5.2.1 Holy Spirit Empowerment
Jesus was Holy Spirit empowered through his baptism and then driven into the wilderness by the Spirit of the Lord to overcome trials and tribulations by quoting scripture. At his ascension, he reminded the disciples to gather and wait for him to send the Holy Spirit so that they could witness to the world. On the day of Pentecost, tongues of fire were sent from the Father to fill the disciples with empowerment to preach and teach to the world, as they knew it. The Holy Spirit is the thread that bridges effective past and present revival methods. Without the empowerment of God’s Spirit, there is no revival. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no unction, no tongue of fire, no assurance of truth, no new converts, and no social holiness. It is God’s spirit that brings forth reconciliation and unity within the church so that the church can serve the world.
Phoebe Palmer, a layperson, was recorded in history as having a tongue of fire and preaching the truth in love and grace. Phoebe Palmer allowed the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to move her to self-discipline, self-sacrifice, and intentional spiritual growth for the purpose of ushering in the reign of God on earth. Ushering in the reign of
God requires Holy Spirit led methods and practices that promote reconciliation and salvation. Her mysticism reignited the Methodist small group Bible Study, accountability, and service arm of the church. Through her Tuesday Meetings, revival
111
preaching, and work in women’s missionary groups, social holiness gained ground establishing a spiritual outlet for laity that crossed gender, racial, and class boundaries.
Elaine Heath re-introduces Palmer’s mysticism along with missional and new monastic communities as the means to evangelize this generation to represent the incarnational
Christ and usher in social holiness. Heath’s call to rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit and allow “the wind” to blow where it wills offers creative and instinctive means to grow the church of Jesus Christ to represent the Lord incarnate in the present age.
5.2.2 Scripturally Rooted
Scripture calls us to "remember that the incarnation happened when God became human through Jesus and immersed himself in human life."3 Fresh expressions are reflections of the incarnate Jesus; the place where Jesus comes into the world through culture and culture is changed by the presence of Jesus. The Father sent His Son to save humanity by becoming one of us so that we could accept his presence and teaching among us for the purpose of emulating Jesus’ teachings when he returned to the Father.
Through scripture, we learn that Jesus was involved in the everyday lives of those whom he served. He attended a wedding banquet, walked by the sea shore, went out in the boat with the fishermen, taught in the synagogue, visited in homes, healed the sick, fed the hungry, blessed and broke the bread, prayed with his followers, washed the
3 Fresh Expressions. http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/guide/about/whatis , 7/30/2013, What is a Fresh Expression of church? 112
feet of those who followed him, died for our sins, was resurrected, and then cooked a campfire fish breakfast for his disciples. He listened to those in need and crossed social and cultural boundaries establishing an inclusive kingdom. Those who follow Jesus answer the call of the Holy Spirit to fresh expressions of faith and service. Jesus used
Jewish theology and history to do a new thing; he calls us to use the tools of old to do a new thing, to serve the people of this age.
5.2.3 Call
Wesley, Finney, Palmer, and Heath clearly remind all Christians that God calls the laity to leadership in the body of the church. They hold firm to the sacraments being offered only through ordained clergy. The call to discipleship, teaching, and serving is the call to Christianity. Being a Christian means participating in God’s reign in ways that is often in contrast to the world’s view. Accepting the call of Christ is an acceptance to pick up one’s cross and follow Jesus to Golgotha. It is only at Golgotha that the world comes to accept who Christ is. Those called to serve are empowered by the Holy Spirit through scriptural references and direction to offer themselves as living sacrifices to follow Jesus and transform the world.
5.2.4 Social Holiness
Social holiness is the place where the world meets Jesus face to face. It is the place where the boundaries between church and state may blur for service to the people.
In America and throughout time, the Church has struggled with the issues of sexism,
113
racism, and classism. These isms are boundaries that Jesus clearly crossed to usher in social holiness in his age.
For Finney, social holiness in America was based in government and religion as one entity. He utilized intellectualism and emotionalism to move Americans to conversion. Clergy, through revival preaching, held the responsibility to move listeners to spiritual decisions. Converts were then responsible to abide in social holiness in ways that ushered in the new millennium so that America could be the first country to experience total salvation in the world. Finney felt a sense of urgency for the entire population of America to participate in the reign of God.
Palmer’s Altar Theology moved thousands of Christians to rethink church and be personally accountable to participate in social movements that ushered in the reign of
God. Building on Palmer’s theology, Heath said, "Live with them; go out, go deep, go together."4 She reminded us that Jesus commissions us to do whatever it takes to bring the gospel into the world. She said, "Follow Jesus into Hell on purpose in order to lead everyone out by the hand." This reminds me that Jesus did it, “Why shouldn’t we?”
5.3 Practical Divinity – What Can the Present Church Learn?
Ted Smith in "The New Measures" sums up the theology between nineteenth century and twenty-first century theological methods. "Neither individual new
4 Heath, To Serve the Present Age, WNCC Annual Meeting and DVD recorded, Day 1, June, 21 2013. 114
measures nor the broad category of novelty represented anything really new."5 The measures themselves whether new, fresh, or old all seemed to circulate around and around ushering in the same theologies and the same opposition. The reality is that the
Jesus’ model really works because it is God’s “New Thing” as promised in the Old
Testament scriptures. Christian’s living what they believe is what was most dramatically effective as the evangelical practice of any day. God set forth the model of how to
Christianize the world and participate in the reign of God in the gospels and New
Testament epistles. Do it like Jesus did it and it will be effective every time. Preach, live together, study together, hold one another accountable, and forgive as I have forgiven you (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
The new millennium comes in God's time and Jesus tells us that no one knows when that will be. No one can make it come faster than God sends it. We are in the narrative, part of the eschatology of God's promise for our future. The work before us is imminent and requires practices that draw the world into the fire of the Holy Spirit. By the power of the Holy Spirit based in scripture, God calls to us and empowers us to envision and work towards social holiness through new measures and fresh expressions.
The only way to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission to “Go and make disciples” is to do so with the strength of the Lord. The strength of the Lord comes through the gathered Christian community as a whole and sacred body of Christ on earth. Following
5 Smith, The New Measures, 98. 115
Jesus requires getting out of our comfort zones and stepping out in faith. It requires the same kind of faith and strength that the Israelites possessed as they left Egypt. The things of the world enslave us; the things of God set us free to follow Jesus and participate in his body on earth through God’s vision and calling. Christians are called to offer the world Christ in ways that call the world to become a more holy place. Today
– our present age – is the new day to begin to live in accordance with Jesus’ teachings and adopt these practices that have been proven throughout the ages.
May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.6
6 HarperCollins, NRSV, Colossians 1: 11-12. 116
Bibliography
Anglican-Methodist Working Party. Fresh Expressions in the Mission of the Church: Report of the Anglican-Methodist Working Party. London: Church House Publishing, 2012.
Archbishop's Council on Mission and Public Affairs. Mission-Shaped Church: Church Planting and Fresh Expressions in a Changing Context. New York: Seabury Books, 2009.
Finney, Charles Grandison. Oberlin Evangelist: Letters on Revivals. No. 1-12 and 21. Printed and Published by Jim Fitch, Oberlin, Ohio. Vol. II. January 29, 1845 through December 3, 1945, Vol. II.
Fresh Expressions United Kingdom http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/What is fresh expression? 2012 Inaugural National Gathering, 3/05/2013.
Fresh Expressions United States Home Page. http://freshexpressionsus.org/, 11/20/13.
Goodhew, David, Andrew Roberts and Michael Volland. Fresh!: An Introduction to Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer. London: SCM Press, 2012.
Hardesty, Nancy. Women Called to Witness: Evangelical Feminism in the Nineteenth Century, Second Edition. Knoxville: Univ/Tennessee Press, 1999.
Heath, Elaine and Scott T. Kisker. Longing for Spring: A New Vision for Wesleyan Community. Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 2010.
Heath, Elaine. Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer. Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2009.
Heath, Elaine. Interview on the topic of serving the present age with Suzanne G. Michael during 2013 Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church Annual Meeting at Lake Junaluska, NC. June 20, 2013 following the 1:30 Bible Study.
Heath, Elaine. The Digest - Dr. Elaine Heath Extended Interview 2013 Western North Carolina Conference. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZROX2VTr64.
Heath, Elaine. The Mystic Way of Evangelism: A Contemplative Vision For Christian Outreach. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008. 117
Loveland, Anne C., "Domesticity and Religion in the Antebellum Period: The Career of Phoebe Palmer, "The Historian" 39, no. 3 (May, 1977); 455-71 (CRAP).
Missional Wisdom Foundation. http://missionalwisdom.com/epworth/houses/cochran- house/ The Epworth Project: Cochran House, 11/20/2013.
Missional Wisdom Foundation. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/history-and- mission/, 11/20/2013.
Missional Wisdom Foundation. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/overview/, 10/14/2013.
Missional Wisdom Foundation. http://missionalwisdom.com/new-day/role-of-the- anchor-church/, 10/14/2013.
McLoughlin, William G. Lectures on Revivals by Charles Grandison Finney (1835). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1960.
Oden, Thomas C. Phoebe Palmer: Selected Writings. New York: Paulist Press, 1988.
Palmer, Phoebe. Poem Published in "Christian History," www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/moversandshakers/palmer.htmt. August 8, 2008, last read July 6, 2013.
Palmer, Phoebe. Promise Of The Father on A Neglected Specialty Of The Last Days: Addressed to The Clergy and Laity of all Christian Communities, New York: W.C. Palmer, Jr., 1872.
Palmer, Mrs. Phoebe. The Way of Holiness with Notes by the Way: Being A Narrative of Religious Experience Resulting From A Determination To Be A Bible Christian. London: Alexander Heylin, 1843.
Perry, J.H. Reply to Prof. Mattison's "Answer" Etc.; Being the Summing up of the Case of Professor Mattison Against Mrs. Palmer, New York: John A. Gray's Salamander Printing-Office, 1956, 39.
Raser, Harold E. Phoebe Palmer: Her Life and Thought. Lewiston/Queenston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1947.
118
Robert, Dana L. Gospel Bearers, Gender Barriers: Missionary Women in the Twentieth Century, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. American Society of Missiology Series, No. 32, 2002.
Roche, John A. Mrs. "Phoebe Palmer," LR (Feb. 1866): 65-70; cf. W. J. McCutcheon, "Phoebe Palmer," in Notable American Women, vol. 3, pp. 12ff. (Phoebe Palmer by Oden page 24).
Rosell, Garth M. and Richard A.G. Dupuis. The Memoirs of Charles G. Finney: The Complete Restored Text. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1989.
Sims, Gannon. http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Gannon-Sims/896592737, Fresh Expressions, 11/24/2013, 3.
Sims, Gannon. "Owing the Gospel. Fresh Expressions Changing Church for a Changing World." http://freshexpressionsus.org./2012/03/gannon-sims-owing-the-gospel/ , March 28, 2012.
Smith, Ted A. The New Measures: A Theological History of Democratic Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Stanley, Susie C. Holy Boldness: Women Preachers' Autobiographies and the Sanctified Self. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2004.
The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church 2012. Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 2012.
The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.
Webber, Robert. The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2002.
Wheatley, Richard. The Life and Letters of Mrs. Phoebe Palmer, New York: Palmer, 1881; New York: Garland, 1984.
119
Biography
Suzanne Michael was born in Hartsville, South Carolina in 1958. Her parents moved the family to Greensboro, North Carolina in 1970 and remained active in the
United Methodist Church. In 1984 she became the President of her local United
Methodist Women’s Unit, then served as District Chair of Membership with the responsibility of training and developing leaders for membership growth and eventually served as the Chair of Membership for the United Methodist Women of the
Western North Carolina Conference. The women of the nineteenth century established the roots of the United Methodist Women in America who encouraged Suzanne’s desire to answer God’s call into the ordained ministry.
In 1995 Suzanne graduated as a member of the Beta Gamma Honor Society from
The Bryan School of Business at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in Business Management concentrating in Human Resources with a minor in
Psychology. In 2000 she received her Master of Divinity from The Divinity School of
Duke University. She is a recipient of the Georgia Harkness, Ernestine L. Penry, Ed and
Dewey Boswell, and Clyde Tesh Scholarships. Suzanne is an ordained Elder in the
United Methodist Church and a member of the Western North Carolina Conference. She is also a Fitzgerald Scholar through the Board of Global Ministries and a trained Church
Planter. She continues to seek and explore ways to participate in ushering in the reign of
God in her present age.
120